Education Leadership

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, list, Matthew Lynch July 29, 2016

Principals: 4 Factors to Consider When Engaging in School Reform

Our society is giving more and more attention to improving student learning.

This expectation 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.

Principals must advocate for these students and provide leadership to reverse this appalling educational outcome. However, the odds are sometimes stacked against them. Let’s look at some issues principals face in trying to create change, and the solutions that will help them accomplish just that.

Many public schools have unworkable school environments.

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.

Some school districts don’t have a cohesive agenda for the principal to follow.

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.

District-level decisions can disempower principals.

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.

The best district leaders understand a principal’s challenge and will do what they can to help principals be successful school leaders.

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.

What do you think are some challenges principals might face when trying to improve their schools?

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership July 21, 2016

Why social interaction is essential to learning math

**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 Robert Sun

Not long ago, while visiting Israel, I had the opportunity to sit in on a fourth grade class at a progressive school in that country’s North District. The young teacher that day was leading her group of 19 students as they learned English. Over the 40 minute session, as the students were introduced to 20 new English vocabulary words, speaking them aloud and using them in sentences, I suddenly realized how important active, verbal and reciprocal exchange is to learning any new language.

And math, most definitely, is a language.

I know first-hand how difficult the task of learning a new language can be because, like those Israeli students, I had to learn English as a fourth-grade immigrant from Shanghai. Speaking English day after day, my new home in Philadelphia slowly became a much more inviting place—for me, a city of promise.

Fluency in English requires the mastery of 4,000 to 5,000 new and unfamiliar words. That’s a long process. By contrast, learning math should be much easier. After all, with math you don’t have to know what a “9” means; you only need to understand how a 9 can relate to a 3 or a 27, because math focuses on relationships and how numbers connect.

One reason I believe math is challenging for so many young people, is because it is so rarely spoken. In school, math instruction focuses on the written component: the constant litany of textbooks, board work and worksheets. At best, students listen to the teacher talk about math—but rarely do they speak it at length themselves.

Each of us, from the moment we hear our parents speak our name for the first time, gained our fluency for language through verbal interaction. The constant give-and-take, as we sharpened our pronunciations and built our vocabulary, became essential in our transformation from inarticulate toddler to fully functioning adult. The process of learning math would benefit from just such a dynamic. But it’s something we’re sorely missing.

All too often we forget that language acquisition demands a verbal component. You can focus on all the writing you want, from grammar to composition to reading—but without receiving the constant interaction, feedback and encouragement from people through conversation, your progress in mastering any new language will be limited.

Developing a working vocabulary is an exercise that can take many years. Until we build a foundation of competency, we are reluctant to speak because speaking is public—and in that public act we reveal ourselves.

Our education system seeks fluency in the language of math, yet it does not encourage students to use it in a social way, producing many who are anxious about math. If they don’t have to speak math, few people really know the extent of their math proficiency. It becomes easy to keep the “secret” of how weak they may be. Like all secrets, anxiety builds the longer the secret is maintained.

Over the last several decades, in fact, being “bad at math” has become socially acceptable. Admitting you are not proficient enables you to divert the subject and protect your deficiency. Unfortunately, so many people publically make this admission that it has become a culturally accepted way to avoid getting good at math. We need to change this dynamic.

I believe that as educators and as a society, we need to develop the idea of “social math”: the use of spoken math to inspire the human interactions that provide the feedback and motivation to master fluency. We can start to develop social math by encouraging our children, from a very early age, to speak as well as write the language of mathematics.

Just as the students in that Israeli classroom learned English by speaking words out loud, we can do the same when teaching math. Teachers can encourage their students to express themselves verbally using mathematical terms; even in the early grades, children can be asked to explain what they want or mean using numbers, or relationships between numbers. Anything that encourages them to talk about math and mathematical concepts is beneficial.

Today we understand how to remove the traditional stumbling blocks that prevent many from acquiring math proficiency:

Provide immediate feedback; i.e., social engagement.
Offer engaging and comprehensive content at hundreds of entry points, ensuring that no matter the skill level of a child, he or she can find an entry point to experience success and move progressively to advance their skills.
Give children a sense of control and ownership over the learning process.
Allow students the freedom to make mistakes, so they will push their skills right to the edge. That’s where the real active learning occurs.
Encourage our children to SPEAK and write math so they will be truly fluent.

Technology has enabled us to develop tools that are designed to incorporate these features. Schools using these innovative tools discover that their students are eager to speak and practice mathematics.

Whenever children in a school are struggling to learn English, we invest considerably more resources into building their competence in that subject than we do when a comparable deficiency exists with math literacy. If our children are not expected to speak the language of math, they do not reveal their weakness and it becomes easier to ignore.

On the other hand, when we speak the common language of math with vibrancy and passion, we inspire our children to explore and pursue the rich opportunities offered in this essential and universal form of communication. This will benefit our next generation of thinkers immensely, providing them with the foundation to support careers in the STEM professions and every part of life.

________________________

ROBERT SUN is the CEO of Suntex International and inventor of First In Math, an online program designed for deep practice in mathematics.

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership July 21, 2016

The 7 Qualities of Learning-Centered Leadership

A revolution is taking place in school leadership. New policies call for higher academic standards and accountability. So-called “accountability systems” include more methods to develop and monitor school change. Researchers have joined the fray, adding their opinions about the reinvention of instructional leadership in schools.

More focus on student results leads to local changes aligned with the performance goals of the educational system. The general presumption is that these changes will come automatically, since public reporting of school outcomes creates pressure for reform. The development of direct incentives that yield innovation, efficiency, and solutions to performance problems will also be a source of change.

Accountability systems force the development of standards required for improved instructional and assessment practices. They also act as incentives for participation in the process. This simple logic of an accountability system is compelling, providing an irresistible rationale for educational reform.

The recent debate in the U.S. on the legitimacy of using standardized tests to gauge student learning has led to new leadership efforts and spending to help schools achieve better test scores. These efforts have pressured new instructional leadership, characterized by school analysts, researchers, and school leaders focusing on data in their decision-making. This new instructional paradigm was envisioned earlier in research.

This new instructional style has also been called “learning-centered” leadership. It began with a push by state education leaders to process student data from available achievement tests. Private companies enjoyed financial benefits, selling data reporting systems to schools to help them sort the data. State education leaders hired consultants, who created data analysis workshops and data retreats to instruct school leaders on effective data use. School leaders adopted new school reform plans and curricula coordinated with state learning standards, resulting in far-reaching changes in student learning. Positive results only happened when practitioners were willing to change their ways and conform to the new standards.

The biggest problem in data-driven decision-making is the implementation of new accountability practices. Most schools already had active, working internal accountability systems. Schools already made decisions based on data, such as class attendance, test scores, student discipline, available budgets, and teacher reputations. Administrative reliance on these old internal accountability systems has caused the most resistance to reforms in school instructional practice.

To use data to improve student performance, leaders need to factor in external accountability instead of traditional methods. This new model improves on traditional practices such as teacher evaluation, professional development, curriculum design, and building new cultures of learning. Older techniques will have to be changed to address the challenges of contemporary schools.

Practical systems rely on two-way information flow, connecting classroom practice with external accountability measures. This requires stronger links between teaching and leadership, teacher collaboration, learning matched with current instructional goals, and close monitoring of instructional outcomes. To succeed here, the leader must assist students in taking tests, avoid favoring test preparation over learning, and justify instructional practices changes to the community.

Here are seven factors to consider when doing this:

Data Acquisition: Data acquisition refers to the processes of seeking, collecting, and preparing useful information for teaching and learning activities. The data gathered and processed at this stage comes from student test scores. However, other fields of information are needed to inform teaching and learning. Data storage is a vital element of data acquisition. There is a need to use local data systems, since the NCLB Act, when it was active, required certain information on student performance. Schools have created a retail demand for data storage and data analysis products.

Data Reflection: Data reflection is the manipulation of student learning data toward improved teaching and learning practices. DDIS data reflection is a structured opportunity for both teachers and leaders to make useful sense of data, rather than guessing “what works.”Data reflection can be done at a school-wide level, grade level, or even in subject-area meetings. Problem framing is a vital element of data reflection. This involves active thought on how data can improve outcomes, leading to a plan of action.
Program Alignment: This involves matching the school’s instructional program to the content and performance standards in classrooms. Program alignment is an essential part of planning for instructional leadership, probably the most sensitive part of DDIS, in order to influence the outcome of the new policies.
Program Design: It is through program design that the school’s policies, plans, and procedures are defined in such a manner that reported problems are addressed. Curricula, student service programs, and instructional strategies are modified to improve student learning. Program design also involves the inspection of the school’s access to budgets and grants, for starting and maintaining a new program.
Formative Feedback: Feedback is always a crucial in the adoption of new strategies. The DDIS model creates a continuous and timely flow of information, designed to improve student outcomes. This feedback is different from data acquisition and reflection. It applies to information gathered to measure the school’s progress measured in terms of student performance.
Test Preparation: This last part of the DDIS model consists of activities designed to assess, motivate, and develop student academic abilities, as well as strategies to improve performance on state and district assessment tests. Test preparation covers a wide range of issues, such as test formats, testing skills, and addressing weak areas, as well as test preparation.“Teaching to the test” refers to study content, called “formulaic instruction.” It is teaching students topics that are tested, without regard to holistic learning. Leaders in schools across the U.S. have changed multiple aspects of school life to gear their instructional programs toward test content. Schools where the DDIS mode was put into action didn’t narrow their curriculum to the test content. The researchers noticed instead that, in schools with DDIS systems, there were rich instructional systems designed to help students meet state exam standards.

A DDIS system of instructional leadership is insightful, innovative, and results-oriented. It increases precision in predicting student outcomes and developing key areas of study relevant to academic improvement.

Improvements and changes in instructional leadership have kept it relevant, even in the face of other leadership styles. It is accepted that schools must practice some level of instructional leadership. Instructional leadership remains a crucial aspect of the school setting.

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, list, Matthew Lynch July 17, 2016

3 Reasons Why School Districts Should Revitalize Underperforming Schools

As we’re still working with an ever-growing achievement gap, it’s worth considering who should be the key players in reforming our lowest-performing schools. School districts need to take some of the lead in this. Let’s look at why:

School districts have the power to emerge from bureaucracy and make a true difference.

There are many questions and critical issues facing schools as districts evolve from their bureaucratic roots. These questions include the roles that should be kept at the district level, those that should be eliminated, or those that should be passed on to others. Districts also have to look at new functions they may wish to take on and the capabilities needed to assume these functions. At least initially, they will need to determine whether decisions should be made at district level, school level, or elsewhere.

Districts have the power to reach out.

There is also support for districts to take action to discover common interests between schools and the community, through ongoing outreach. Districts need to find ways for people to meet and discuss how to further common interests and work on them cooperatively in order to break down barriers. This type of outreach empowers families and communities, making them useful assets to school systems. Building relationships within the education system and holding open conversations are excellent ways to foster engagement.

Districts are familiar with the unique challenges of their schools.

In the United States, there are low levels of achievement among students from low-income backgrounds and students of color. This is in contrast to the fact that students in educationally supportive states and those from advantaged backgrounds easily rival students from across the world. To put this into context, nine year-olds from White, advantaged backgrounds read as well as thirteen-year-old Black and Hispanic students. In addition, even though funding has increased, it has done so unequally and the achievement gap has grown.

Typically, schools that serve a large number of “minority” students face big issues, which put them at a disadvantage when compared to other schools. They have to deal with lower budgets, larger classes, and often less qualified teachers and school leaders. The effect of this has been to create an “educational debt” that negatively affects the students in these communities. Major efforts are needed to address this issue. Recruiting great teachers is important, but it is not the whole answer. Systemic elements are needed to support the work of talented educators. It is not the people who are at fault: it is the system that needs an overhaul.

As Ted Sizer once put it, “The people are better than the system.” We have come a long way in understanding how to create more effective school leaders and build a national commitment to educational leadership. However, we are not there yet. We need leadership to forge all of the various elements of school reform today into well-functioning systems that make sense for those working hard to achieve results for students.

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

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Matthew Lynch, Policy & Reform July 4, 2016

The Five Attributes of Successful Schools

Students across the globe need effective schools. While the American school system as a whole may be falling behind international standards, there are still some schools that stand out.

Sure, the context of schooling will impact attributes that contribute to effectiveness in specific schools. But at the same time, there are attributes that contribute to effectiveness across schooling contexts. If we understand the attributes of effectiveness, we can observe which attributes exist at successful schools.

There are five common attributes that make up an effective school.

Leadership

The first attribute is quality leadership. Students perform better when the principal and school board members provide strong leadership. Effective leaders are visible, can successfully convey the school’s goals and visions, collaborate with teachers to enhance their skills, and are involved in the discovery of and solutions to problems.

High Expectations

The second attribute is having high expectations of students as well as teachers. High expectations of students have repeatedly been shown to have a positive impact on student performance. Students are somewhat dependent on the expectations placed on them during this period of their lives, as they are still shaping their personal sense of ability and esteem. Teachers who are expected to teach at high levels of effectiveness can reach the level of expectations, particularly when teacher evaluations and professional development are geared toward improving instructional quality.

Ongoing Evaluation

The third attribute of a successful school is the ongoing screening of student performance and development. Schools should use assessment data to compare their students with others from across the country. Effective use of assessment data allows schools to identify problematic areas of learning at the classroom and school levels, so that teachers can generate solutions to address the problems.

Goals and Direction

The fourth attribute of a successful school is the existence of goals and direction, According to research, the successful school principal actively constructs goals and then effectively communicates them to appropriate individuals (e.g., students, teachers, and the community at large). School principals must also be open and willing to incorporate innovation into goals for school processes and practices. So it’s important to invite input from all stakeholders in the process of developing school goals. Student performance has been shown to improve in schools where the entire school community works toward goals that are communicated and shared among all in the learning environment.

Secure and Organized

The fifth and final attribute of a successful school is the extent to which the school is secure and organized. For maximum learning to occur, students need to feel secure. Respect is a quality that is promoted and is a fundamental aspect of an effective and safe school. Successful schools also have a number of trained staff and programs, such as social workers, who work with difficult or troubled students before situations get out of hand.

Apart from the five attributes of a successful school already mentioned, the size of the school seems to be an attribute in the school’s effectiveness. Research has found that the smaller the school, the better students perform, especially in the case of older students. This is the rationale behind the concept of schools-within-schools. Students in smaller learning environments feel more connected to their peers and teachers, pass classes more often, and are more likely to go to college. Schools-within-schools involve creative use of the same teaching workforce to provide additional opportunities for learning for smaller groups of students or specialized teaching to students who require extra attention.

This environment could be created in the form of divided streams for mathematics education. Students who want to pursue studies in the humanities would need a mathematical education grounded in statistics and graphical representation, because this focus will be more relevant and prevalent during their postsecondary education career.

Students who intend to pursue a career in engineering or applied physics, for example, would have completely different needs, such as a greater focus on calculus and highly theoretical mathematical concepts like number theory. Creating schools-within-schools for these students would have lasting and measurable benefits for them, as well as benefits for the teacher, who could teach smaller groups of students and offer greater individual attention to student queries and difficulties.

A number of school districts view preschool education as an attribute that will influence overall effectiveness across all schools located within the district. Evidence suggests that children with preschool experiences fare better academically and socially as they enter kindergarten and beyond. Experiences in literacy and numeracy among early learners not only prepare preschoolers for a kindergarten curriculum that has heightened expectations of prior knowledge, but also help identify early learners who need additional support to ensure they have positive learning experiences later.

Additional attributes that influence effective schools include time to learn, teacher quality, and parental trust. Research supports the view that the more time a student spends learning, and the more efficiently that time is used, the higher their achievement. Schools that find creative ways to extend learning time will likely be more effective. Furthermore, schools with high-quality teachers also tend to be more effective.

Schools able to hire teachers from high-quality teacher education programs are more likely to be effective. But school effectiveness can also be influenced by the frequency, relevancy, and quality of the teacher professional development offered by the school or school district. Teachers who haven’t had the opportunity to attend prestigious teacher education colleges still have several opportunities to develop after embarking on their professional career. Support for these initiatives at a school or school district level tends to improve overall teacher quality, regardless of their college of origin.

Trust and parental participation are also features of a successful school. Trust between all parties of the school community is vital for enhancing the school’s effectiveness because it supports the prospect that parents and teachers believe in each other’s motives and actions. Parental participation is also important because it sends the message to students that the adults in their lives—both teachers and parents—believe in the importance of education and are willing to make time to support students’ educational experiences and efforts.

How well does your school embody the five attributes of a successful school?

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership July 4, 2016

The Three Reasons You Should Care About Teacher Turnover

Teacher turnover – the continuous cycling of new teachers through a district, with very few or even none staying beyond a year or few – is a big problem. It affects the state of education overall, and while it may not seem like it at first glance, it also impacts you as a prospective or freshly certified teacher. But how? Why should you care about teacher turnover?

1. It impacts the budget that school districts have to spend on you.

High teacher turnover has resulted in astronomical costs to the nation. According to Barnes, Crowe, and Schaefer, who completed a study for the NCTAF in 2007 about the cost of teacher turnover in America, the average cost for each teacher leaving in Chicago was $17,872, and the total cost nationally is estimated to be over $86 million per year.
In 2000, a study in Texas indicated that the state’s overall teacher turnover rate of 15.5% costs around $329 million a year. Schools with high turnover rates spend money recruiting and training new teachers who are unprepared to start.

2. It stresses the teachers who would serve as your mentors.

A few senior teachers are expected to mentor a large number of new teachers, and they feel unable to meet these expectations. Under these circumstances, it’s the children who suffer most. Therefore, it’s imperative that not only to recruit and train new teachers, but also to retain and reward the best teachers who currently serve in public schools all over the nation.

3. The long-term consequences will affect your entire career experience.

Quick-fix solutions will not serve the purpose and are likely to do more harm than good in the long run. Although some of these quick-fix solutions may increase the supply of new teachers, they provide no guarantee that new teachers in the profession will stay in the profession. As mentioned previously, the best solution to significantly reduce teacher turnover is to devise new ways to retain existing teachers.

So, what to do about the problem of teacher turnover? Some of the ways to attract new teachers include revamping the public education system in a manner that provides opportunities for teachers to voice their opinion on policy matters, recognizing teachers for their professional achievements, and providing adequate and competitive financial compensation.

If you’re a new teacher, ask your district what their plan is to reduce teacher turnover, and how you can help. Don’t just sit by and watch the problem keep happening – become a part of the solution. In the long run, it will help you, too!

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Policy & Reform June 27, 2016

Private Schools and the Law: Tips for Private School Administrators

Note: The following guest post was by Anthony Ashton, litigation partner at the law firm of DLA Piper LLP (US) in the Baltimore office. He conducts annual trainings for educators and administrations and regularly advises them on legal matters. He has served on the Boards of multiple schools, and is a former teacher and guidance counselor. Contact information: [email protected]

Whether the job title is Principal, Headmaster, Head of School, or Dean, the top administrator of a private primary or secondary school is effectively the CEO of a company. CEOs of most successful companies are aware of the laws that apply to their businesses, and budget annually for legal services. A smart CEO regularly consults with the company’s in-house general counsel or what is effectively outside general counsel. Even small private schools typically have multimillion dollar annual budgets. Despite this, many schools have exactly $0 built into their budgets for legal services. Because numerous and varied laws apply to, and have the potential for devastating effects on schools, presumably, this missing budgetary item is due to a failure to appreciate the need for, and usefulness of, competent legal advice, rather than apathy for the law. This article will explain why best practices include annual training for faculty, staff, and administration on key legal topics, and regular access to legal advice.

At its core, education is a service industry. Unlike other service companies, schools have two subsets of clientele, parents and students, who have divergent legal obligations, legal rights, and legal standards of behavior. For example, although they are not the recipients of the services provided by schools, parents are contractually obligated to pay tuition. Despite the fact that students have no obligation to pay tuition, schools owe a legal duty to students to ensure students’ safety while on school grounds or at school-related activities.

Tip One: Annual Risk Management Training

A school can breach this duty by failing to protect a student from harm caused by school employees, fellow students, and even the student herself. Although the law requires adults to protect themselves by acting as reasonably prudent persons, children are required only to act as reasonable persons of their age would act. In short, children are allowed to behave as children. This lowered standard of care also applies to how children interact with one another. It is incumbent upon school personnel to act in a manner that reduces the risk to students and, in turn, the school’s potential liability. Consequently, risk management training should be a part of school personnel’s annual training, and should occur as close as possible to the beginning of each school year. Assuming a school has an attorney on retainer, this should be included in the legal services provided. The adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is especially true in the school setting. It is easy to criticize actions after an injury or complaint from a parent. The goal is to avoid such injuries and complaints. Training faculty, staff, and administrators to conduct a risk/benefit analysis (consider the best and worst probable outcomes) before each interaction with children provides great protection for the students and, as a result, the institution.

Tip Two: Annual Training Regarding State Reporting Obligations

Because many states have reporting obligations related to suspected child abuse and neglect, a school may breach the legal duty to a student by failing to protect a student from harm that takes place outside of school and unrelated to school activities. Reporting obligations may require school personnel to report suspected abuse from parents or other household members. In short, the school may be obligated to protect a member of one group of its clientele from a member of the other group of its clientele. Reporting suspected abuse may result in embarrassment to, and anger from, the person ultimately responsible for paying tuition and determining whether the student remains enrolled at the school. Thus, there is an inherent conflict of interest. The law, however, does not care about this conflict. Next, there may be reluctance to report because abuse subjectively may be associated with lower income, less educated families, rather than the population served by the school. The law, however, does not care about the socio-economic background of the child or suspected abuser. A firm understanding of the legal reporting obligations is a must, and training on this topic should take place annually.

Tip Three: Have a Copy of Child Custody and Visitation Court Orders

Schools also may be drawn into disputes between feuding parents. Divorced or divorcing parents may argue as to who is permitted to perform child pick-ups, agree to fieldtrips, or make other educational decisions. As a consequence, the school may be caught in the middle of two members of one group of clientele. It is important that schools: (1) know whether there is a court order regarding custody and visitation; and (2) be able to understand the legalities of any such order. Again, the best practice would be to have an outside counsel on retainer to explain the implications of these court orders. Court orders will typically set forth if one parent has primary custody or the parents have shared custody, who may make educational decisions, who is responsible for paying tuition, etc. By being able to knowledgably refer to a court order, school personnel potentially can avoid being intimidated by parents seeking to take actions contrary to the court order. A typical example of such an action involves Parent A attempting to deny Parent B visitation or custody rights because Parent B is delinquent in spousal or child support. Parent A may instruct the school not to allow Parent B to pick up the child from school. The school, however, has no authority to stop a parent from acting in accordance with a court order.

Tip Four: Annual Sexual Harassment Training

As with all service industry companies, schools are labor intensive. Accordingly, sexual harassment training for all employees related to how they interact with each other should take place on an annual basis. In addition, each school should have a written policy addressing the protocol for reporting, investigating, and handling allegations of harassment. In recent years, the media and, consequently, the public at large has become enthralled with student-teacher sex scandals. Accordingly, there should be annual training related to inappropriate interaction with students. Training should include guidelines regarding dealings with students in person, via telecommunications devices, and social networks. School personnel should avoid being placed in any situation where they have to deny wrongdoing, and explain their actions. School personnel must be hyper-vigilant in ensuring, not only that there is no improper interaction, but that there is not even the appearance of such. The cardinal rule should be: “perception is just as important as reality”.

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Teachers June 19, 2016

Empowering students and lessons in giving constructive feedback

A guest post by Brooke Chaplan

Students today more than ever before need to be empowered to go on to live effective, successful lives. It is important students of all ages have good examples of learning and education in their lives. They also need constructive feedback from teachers that can help them to mature as learners and as people. As a teacher, you are privileged to be able to give them both.

Begin with a Passion For Teaching

Your love for teaching will be the first thing students notice about you as a teacher. It doesn’t matter if you particularly like an individual subject you may have to teach, although that certainly helps. What students need to see in you is a passion for the art of teaching that will tell them that it is important for them to learn.

If you have a passion to teach, it will be translated to your students in thousands of non-verbal ways throughout your classes. They will see it in your eyes, in the invigorating way you talk about your subjects, and even in your tone of voice. The payback for translating your passion to your students will be that some of them will emulate your example and become teachers themselves. If you can demonstrate the best parts of learning it can inspire others to be lifelong learners themselves.

Personal Interest in Your Students Is Vitally Important

The teachers that make the most significant impression on students are those who take a personal interest in their lives. You may be teaching a very large class of students, where it is difficult to get to know each child individually. Nevertheless, in any class there are those students who stand out to you as either being very talented or very needy. You should invest the time to reach out to both of them, because they both need your help in different ways.

Exceptional students need to be spurred on to greater growth. Take college students aside and encourage them to perhaps pursue and online Master’s in higher education. Talk to younger middle school and elementary school students about honing their talents and finding what they are good at. Help them to find out how they can use their personal talents to pursue the career they were meant for.

Needy students can need a challenge for any number of reasons. You will need to take the time out of your schedule to find out why. Perhaps they have a troubling home situation, or may have cognitive challenges. Unfortunately, many students today have chemical addictions as well. Whatever the reason, attempt to help them and put them on the right path. Even a kind note on an essay can be a good personal notice for more shy students.

Share Your Constructive Criticism When Needed

Constructive criticism always has a positive edge to it. Though it may be initially perceived by the student as being negative, it is intended to correct for greater positive growth. It does not beat down or demoralize. In any class of students, it is sometimes needed.

Constructive criticism is something that should always be shared in private. Begin by telling the student the good things you see about him or her. This will get you started off on the right track. Then tell them what you think is holding them back, and how they can make a positive change. After this is done, reaffirm your confidence in them as an individual. If you share your concerns in the right way, it’s possible that the student will heed your advice. Learning from mistakes and error is one of the most important parts of teaching and learning.

Being a teacher is not an easy job, but the reward is that you are allowed to help students to reach their individual potential as human beings, and see them succeed. With positive feedback and constructive criticism you can help student succeed. It’s up to them as much as you to see where the future can take them.

Brooke Chaplan is a freelance writer and blogger. She lives and works out of her home in Los Lunas, New Mexico. She loves the outdoors and spends most her time hiking, biking and gardening. For more information contact Brooke via Twitter @BrookeChaplan.

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, First Year Teachers, Teachers June 16, 2016

Supporting the Struggling Writer

Caption: A Turnitin study reports that technology tools can overcome psychological barriers struggling students encounter in writing. Pre-writing and frequent, informal writing exercises often guided by technology tools, can help.

In a recent survey of students from middle school to graduate school by Turnitin, half of the 1,400 students who responded said they find it challenging just getting started with a writing project.

For teachers, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. There are always students in every class who, for one reason or another, find it daunting to begin filling a blank page or screen with words. And they aren’t necessarily the worst students in the class: They could be anyone, including the highest achievers.

In talking with several teachers, U.K. researcher Paul Gardner identified a number of possible reasons for this problem. For instance, students might be perfectionists, and their fear of “getting it wrong” prevents them from starting to write. They might lack confidence in their ability, or they could be having trouble coming up with ideas—or maybe they’re just reluctant to take risks.

Often, the barriers to writing are deeply psychological in nature. In his paper, Gardner describes how one professional writer can only write on lined A4 paper with four holes punched in the margin. “On an occasion when he mistakenly bought paper with only two holes, he found he was unable to write until he had the correct paper,” Gardner noted.

Students who struggle with their writing need help overcoming these barriers, so they no longer think of writing as a difficult process. This is critical for so many reasons. The ability to write well is essential for academic success—and in today’s Information Age economy, it has become increasingly important for professional success as well.

New state standards place more emphasis on writing skills, and though the SAT has made its essay portion optional as of spring 2016, many colleges prefer or even require applicants to take it. What’s more, writing is the third most highly coveted skill among today’s employers, an analysis by Burning Glass Technologies found.

Fortunately, there are a number of strategies and technology tools that can support struggling writers. Here are four key ideas to start with.

Pay attention to the prewriting process.

Prewriting can help students ease into their writing with a clear plan, which makes the actual writing process simpler. During prewriting, students focus on choosing a topic, developing a purpose, identifying an audience, and collecting and organizing ideas. If students spend quality time prewriting, they won’t be as overwhelmed when it’s time to begin writing, making the process less stressful.

Use mind mapping software and brainstorming strategies to help students generate ideas. Encourage outlining and storyboarding to help them visualize and organize their project. Provide prompts and templates to help them get started.

Provide a safe, supportive environment that removes the sense of risk.

Writing is a more intensely personal activity than, say, solving an algebra problem or balancing a chemistry equation—and so students are likely to be more sensitive to critiques of their work. Therefore, it’s critical to put students at ease by establishing a safe, supportive environment where they feel comfortable sharing their ideas and getting feedback.

Establish a classroom culture in which everyone feels supported and valued. Help students understand that all feedback is designed to make them better writers, and provide plenty of encouragement and support.

Also, consider using a software-based formative writing tool, such as Turnitin’s Revision Assistant, to help students receive timely and actionable feedback on their writing. Technology can provide a safe, non-threatening environment for students, because they might be less inclined to feel as if their work is being judged by someone whose approval they desire, such as a teacher or fellow student.

Mix in opportunities for frequent, informal writing.

Not every writing assignment has to be a formal paper with a prewriting process, multiple drafts and revisions, and a final product. Giving students frequent, low-stakes opportunities to write helps them grow as writers, just like exercising every day helps develop one’s muscles.

If you get students writing more frequently—even with short, informal assignments, such as daily journal entries—then writing will become more natural to students, and they won’t be as intimidated when they have to write a formal paper.

Inspire students’ creativity.

There is plenty of research suggesting how the design of a learning space affects student creativity and achievement. You can inspire students’ creativity by making learning spaces more inviting and giving students multiple seating options, such as comfy chairs with various textures and colors rather than traditional desks arranged in formal rows.

By giving students a choice in where to sit and work comfortably, you are giving them a sense of ownership over their learning space—which can help them to relax and do their best work.

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Matthew Lynch June 11, 2016

Social Constructivism and Leadership

While most current literature is directed toward the use of social constructivism in educational organizations, it can be used by leaders of organizations both inside and outside of the educational sphere to bring about growth and communication. One example of this is in the use of metaphors to further the understanding of followers, which allows them to build their own knowledge base as individual learners, and adapt to new and expanding concepts.

Metaphors are a force through which people create meaning. This is done by using one element of experience to understand another. Metaphors in this sense include anything symbolic to a person, which can be used to better their understanding and enable them acquire new ideas or concepts.

The active use of metaphors can also help the leader move the organization toward social constructivism. Through the constructive use of language, the leader can explore the communication practices of followers and their individual roles in the building of meaning, through the process of social interaction.

Individuals in the organization make sense of things when they communicate; that communication is viewed in retrospect, sense is made out of it, and the meaning is kept as knowledge and used to achieve organizational effectiveness. The brain normally forms thoughts as outlines, prototypes, conceptual metaphors, conceptual frames, and conceptual blends. As a result, the thinking process is not just the systematic use of symbols; it is the brain’s process.

People find it hard to identify examples of rational practices within the organization, find rational practices that have worked out as well as predicted, or feel that the existing rational practices explain what goes on in the organization. Making the connection between organizational structure and its processes is done through process leadership, which is defined as that earned by any member of an organization to lead the organization or its parts forward.

Metaphors can facilitate change by providing a bridge from what followers are familiar with to the vision of the leader. They are particularly useful because they represent the existing organizational view as seen by individuals within the organization. Discovering the views of followers will help leaders learn which policies and facets of the organization are seen in a negative way. Armed with this information, all stakeholders can compromise and work together toward building an organization that meets their shared expectations.