Tag Archives: Beliefs

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Assessment is far more than a grade – A caring teacher’s impact on me

 

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
– Benjamin Franklin

 

With President’s Day approaching (February 20, 2017) I thought it would be a good time to share some thoughts about how a college professor from an undergraduate course on the American Presidency from many years ago impacted my life and my professional journey. A journey that currently has some powerful meaning/relevance with our district’s move to standards based grading and reporting at the middle school. With this blog post, I’ll draw the connections!

As a former 6th and 8th grade social studies teacher (U.S. history, civics, law, world history, reading, etc.) I have a deep interest in our nation’s culture, history, values, beliefs, celebrations, etc. In addition, I hold a degree in political science, so I have been a “policy wonk” for many years, and to this day I follow the news, politics, etc. With President’s Day approaching I am reminded of the powerful impact a professor’s act of kindness and care from many years ago and from an undergraduate course on the American Presidency.

While I was a student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, UIC, I had some of the best teachers in my life. The late Dr. Twiley Barker Jr., Dr. Kevin Lyles, and Dr. Andrew McFarland, to name a few. During a course on the American Presidency, POLS 229, an event took place in my life that impacted my philosophies, beliefs, and actions as a teacher and educational leader over the past 25 years. In some ways it likely shaped my philosophies and impact as a teacher and as an educational leader so many years later. Right now there is a current challenging transition from percentage grades to standards based grades at the middle school level in my district. Looking back at my personal educational history, I’m reminded of why meaningful feedback, teacher /student relationships, and the mastery of content and the flexibility of instruction supersedes any percentage grade or mark in terms of meaningful feedback and communication about learning.

In our district right now we are engaged in a transformation/change process with learning, teaching, grading, reporting and assessing. The implementation of standards based grading, reporting and assessment is ongoing in our school district; there were pretty much no problems when we made the change at the elementary school level (K-5) four years ago.

This is the first year of the middle school implementation of the standards based system, the transition is challenging in part because there is confusion and inconsistency as well as the fact that it is change and that in and of itself causes challenges.

One of the cornerstones of transitioning to standards based learning, grading, etc. is the mindset shift and the concept shift. For example, with the concept shift of instructional change, the zero goes away. The concept of NO MORE ZERO grades and the concept of mastery (or do-over) becomes the focus. Grades/reporting/assessment results are NOT used for “responsibility” or “reward” or “preparation for the next level in education”, instead grades/reporting/assessment results are used to communicate what is learned, what needs to be learned and what is next to be learned. With this blog post, I’m reflecting on the congruity of an impactful event in my life during an undergraduate course, and the realization that this impactful event has impacted my beliefs whether I consciously knew about it or not. This is an “aha” moment for me – this is partially why I so strongly believe the growing pains and transition are worth the time, effort, energy, and extra work involved in the middle school standards based grading situation.

Change is hard (I’ve written a lot about the change process) – Unlearning is hard (I have also written about this concept).

My college professor Dr. Andrew McFarland gave me a chance in the “real world” -when I was in college. Because he knew me, he knew what kind of student I was – he knew my passion for political science he treated me like I was more than a percentage or a score. Dr. McFarland also taught so that students would learn. He had high standards for each and every student and he held himself to high standards too.

So what is this all about? What is this big event that caused me an “aha” moment? Dr. McFarland called me one night while I was eating dinner with my parents; it was 5:30pm – I don’t know how I remember this fact, but I do. This event took place in 1988 or 1999 and I still vividly remember our call!

He called me that night because earlier that day when I took the final exam, I inadvertently forgot to answer one or two additional questions. If Dr. McFarland graded or assessed based on the “old” system I would have received an F. Dr. McFarland, though, was using standards based learning and instruction (whether he or I knew it or not). He called me on the phone and asked me to respond to the final exam question prompts – for 30 maybe 60 minutes. Because he cared about learning – not about percentages or “harsh” lessons, I was able to demonstrate mastery and competency of the American Presidency course (in which I did earn an A, not only because of what I learned, but more importantly, because my professor cared about discovering what his students knew).

He assessed my knowledge acquisition in an alternative learning setting because my teacher was more concerned about assessing my learning and mastery than he was about issuing a grade or a percentage. Had this caring professor used traditional methods I would have failed the exam. In my opinion and in my experiences, standards based grading, reporting, learning, and assessment actually prepares people for real life by holding them accountable to learn. Thank you Dr. McFarland!

You see, opponents to mastery grading, or standards based grading & reporting systems think the “old” 100, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50 percentage system somehow makes sense (it does not) and somehow prepares people for “the real world” (it does not) or prepares them for high school/college.

Well it doesn’t do any of that; but it’s hard for people to unlearn what they know and what they think they know.

It’s hard for people to accept new research studies and effects when those new studies and effects are different than what they experienced.

Our district will transition and in partnership with parents, teachers, administrators, and students, we will do what is best for students. I’m grateful to a wonderful college professor who made a lasting impact on me. A teacher’s impact is lasting and forever; let’s use grades, reporting, and assessment to build strong learned people. Let’s use modern instructional strategies to maximize the impact and effect. Let’s help people unlearn practices that make no sense other than to have been used in their past school experiences. Preparing students for the future world requires teaching them content that is meaningful in learning environments that are powerfully purposeful and full of clear, regular, meaningful feedback and opportunities to learn and demonstrate learning.

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Do you Believe? Leadership messages worth a review.

“Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possible. This power becomes available to you just as soon as you can change your beliefs.”
– Maxwell Maltz

As I have written in the past, I am fortunate to have mentors, coaches, guides, and supporters at all stops along my personal leadership journey and on the leadership journey of the school district I serve. As part of my journey I consider myself quite lucky to have a master teacher Michael Hinojosa. Dr. Hinojosa, “Doc”, was a school superintendent in several states and systems, and he was honored as the Texas superintendent of the year. One of the MANY powerful leadership lessons Doc is teaching us is related to fundamentals and beliefs. One video (shown below) is a vivid example of the powerful leadership lessons as well as the constant focus on students that this master teacher and lead learner was responsible for. I share the video here on the blog as an example – and as an exemplar – of how students and our belief in them matters most – more than we sometimes acknowledge.

I am also quite proud to share the video here since our own Dr. Zoul, DPS109 Assistant Superintendent for Teaching & Learning showed this very same video at one of our district in services in support of our overall messaging about beliefs and values! It is empowering for me to be learning from the leader who found inspiration in and from the voice of a student. As a “snapshot” of the types of things that I learn and experience and think about in preparation of bringing this growth back home I proudly share with you on the blog!

Please watch the video – please hear the messages from this impressive young man – please be sure that we all believe in ALL students – each and every day. I am proud of the inspiring teachers in our District who share their belief in children every day and I am grateful to the prolific sharing of inspiration and belief on our District’s Twitter Hashtag #Engage109

From You Tube Uploaded on Feb 10, 2012
Watch this 9 year old student, Dalton Sherman, grab the attention of 20,000 adults and hold them in the palm of his hand. His inspiring and insightful speech was written by Jon Dahlander, spokesperson for Dallas ISD, and was given in 2008 to the teachers and staff of the Dallas Texas school district. Dalton’s speech immediately went viral and people from all over the country began requesting him as a keynote speaker. Impressed with Dalton’s poise and presence Ellen Degeneres and Oprah invited him to appear on their shows. This video is the first (HD) high definition version to appear on the web.

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Professional Learning – Personalized/Individualized – just like students need and deserve

“If you don’t take chances, you’ll never make advances. ”
– Unknown

Your Philosophy of professional learning
What is the philosophy or foundation of your professional development?/learning If you have not considered this – now is a great time to do so. Connect your values and beliefs and philosophies with all that you do – lead authentically. Have you led a values exercise recently – or ever – with your leaders? Get a stack of index cards, list common values (integrity, honesty, achievement, etc.) work with yourself and your leadership team to identify your top three to five values – are you leading according to these values? Have you shared your top values with your team? Connect with others is authentic when you know yourself and you are true to yourself. Over the past two years our leaders have gone through various iterations of values exercises. When you know your values you lead based upon your values – share them out and be authentic!

Over the years I have discovered that the superintendent who is connected with her/his stakeholders demonstrates how to meet the needs of the adult learners in the organization so that they may be supported in meeting the needs of the children. For schools to change – for school systems to change – for INSTRUCTION to change – so must our concept of training. Training is any type of adult learning situation that the superintendent and her/his team establish and create for those in the organization. To steal a catchy phrase from a big company … we simply need to “just do it” and the “training” might just become a learning experience! When using a committee or using survey data and sharing the data in a feedback loop to show what people said and identify how that feedback was used to design the learning opportunities it is essential to communicate.

Training needs to match the needs of the stakeholders, just like students should be in classrooms where their individual needs should be met, the superintendent must champion a professional environment where the individual needs of teachers must also be met. To change the concept of training requires courage, support, assistance and collaboration. Asking teachers to help lead courses, workshops, etc. is an actionable first step in the quest for a redesigned professional development concept.

Superintendents should be present and participate in training and development alongside teachers and others so that they may lead and learn and live via the lenses of those with whom they seek to impact. Varied professional learning options must be considered, from after school, to rotations based upon planning periods, to release time, to summer/weekend work – the learning must be “just in time” and convenient for those who need the learning. The concepts of “flipped” learning are taking hold and getting more popular – these are evolving times and many modes of training are changing and evolving. Leaders must be open to new ways.

Professional learning is changing. In our District, @DPS109, we have had two annual Teaching and Learning conferences where teachers were able to select the learning they needed, at their level of engagement and skill and depth of knowledge, from among a robust menu of learning sessions. These sessions were related to District initiatives in standards based grades, integrated technology, digital learning, and other “best practices” and District guided options.

Our teachers deserve personalized learning pathways just like our students deserve individualized learning options. Our professional learning is geared toward multiple levels of development, skills, etc. We must model professional learning so that we can expect personalized student learning.

Leading in a culture of connectivity means getting involved in the profession, like #suptchat on Twitter …

It’s good to reflect professionally to ensure your actions and plans are aligned with your values – from time to time I suggest we all stop and consider who we are!

whoareyou

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Excellence Focus – What do you stand for? – Leadership Impacts

“Do what others won’t today, so that you can do what others can’t tomorrow.”
– Unknown 

I state that we in public education all deserve to be held accountable – not solely by student test scores and other measures with way too many intervening variables to isolate elements of excellence in the classroom by classroom teachers – but by scientifically validated, research and practice proven methods and processes that focus on instructional excellence.

Students and communities deserve excellence in their child’s classroom – every day – every year – period. I fully endorse the beliefs that teacher performance must be evaluated – fairly and justly, with integrity and honor. The aim of teacher evaluation should be formative as well as summative, and it should be orientated towards the improvement of excellence and impact on student learning and growth! Effective leaders learn how to evaluate with honor, justice, dignity and research.

I do not support any assertion or do I place an over-value on experience though – alone, experience is equal to “being there” or showing up. I believe that talent, talent in new, older, and experienced and inexperienced staff makes the difference. Good and effective experience is beneficial – bad experience can be disastrous. Through intense training and experiences in training others I am highly skilled and knowledgeable about how to predict talent and identify talent through scientifically validated structured selection instruments. I know how to develop talents in people through using the selection instruments as part of development, or coaching.

The “stand” I take is that we all should be accountable for our performance. We all should be committed to talent and excellence. We should hold professionals accountable for excellence and competence. I do not believe that student performance on tests – standardized (culturally biased in many cases) tests should solely “judge” a teacher’s performance or efficacy. I believe that proper evaluation and accountability through formative assessment measures should “judge” teacher performance.

Perhaps we in education can develop “boards” or proficiency exams – tests for adults – to help determine our competence and to hold us accountable. Perhaps we in education can “force our way to the table” of policymakers and legislators and those who fund initiatives to develop real / authentic tools to evaluate and hold us accountable.

Student performance tests are measures that show student performance. Well designed and implemented teacher appraisal systems measure teacher performance. I stand for scientifically validated assessment for selection and development of staff. I stand for accountability measures that measure standards-based indices.

Suggestions for your leadership growth:

Seek input from stakeholders – if you have done this – have you shared the data and taken action as a result? If not, will you make an action plan to seek input and co-plan the next professional development activity in your District?

Understand how your personal values and professional philosophy guides all of your actions and successes – have you told your story or shared your fundamental values lately? If not – please do – start with your Board at the next meeting. What is your leadership philosophy regarding professional development? Define it – write it – share it.

whoareyou

For the past few years our leadership team has been engaged in leadership development and growth. One of the highlights has been our book study on the Leadership Challenge and the follow up Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI 360). Our work was mentioned in the Journal of the IL Association of School Business Officials (IASBO) (see below on page 18: “An Experience for Leadership at All Levels”)

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Getting a chance to start fresh – The new year starts with a focus on the future!

“The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes

In DPS109 we are moving forward!

Our mission is to Engage, Inspire, Empower and we do this on behalf of the FUTURE – the world will belong to our students – our education system must prepare them for their future – this is an awesome responsibility and challenge.

One of the unique features or aspects about working in public education is that each year we have a distinct beginning, middle and end. Each year a new group of students gets to experience their particular grade level for the first time and we as educators benefit from the wonder and excitement that each new year brings. We work on a traditional school year calendar, August to June; some say this is due to agrarian roots and others say it’s due to support for family time and recreation. For whatever purpose the summer break serves, it provides the school District an opportunity to rest, recharge, revise, reframe and in our case in DPS109, TRANSFORM what we do, how we do it and most important, WHY we do what we do.

Who are we (We meaning the public school district that for 168 years has been business for the sake of the community and society):

-We are fabulous teachers, administrators, Board members, students, parents and community members.
-We are blessed to serve and live and work in a pro-public education community and a pro-learning community.
-We know that instruction impacts learning and we leverage research and science to maximize learning for ALL.
-We are a collective group of just under 500 professionals dedicated to serving about 3100 students (PK-8). We have knowledge and skills and talents that each year we get to refine, improve, test out, and use to facilitate learning among and with our students.
-We are a $55 Million business – a public school business – that has a fiscal responsibility to annually maximize revenues (shrinking usually) and minimize expenses (increasing usually) on behalf of the public.
-We are educators dedicated to the improvement of society through education.
-We are supportive of transformative changes designed to maximize learning for ALL children!
-We are DPS109 and we are proud of what we do!

One of our major initiatives this year in support of learning for ALL and as an example of innovation is best captured in the video embedded below. Later this week and next, each of our 3000 students in grades K-8 will get a device to support their teacher’s innovative instruction. The one to one initiative, about learning, not the devices, has been in the works for more than a decade. Thanks to the Board, the teachers, the leadership, the students and families, and 40 brave trailblazer pilot teachers, we have a 1:1 roll out ongoing right now.

Video regarding the 1:1 Transformative Learning Environment in place in DPS109 and shared with nearly 800 parents who attended the 1:1 Celebration nights held at each of the six schools:

DPS1:1 intro video from Red Branch on Vimeo.