TurnAround Blog

This week I had the honor of being published in the December edition of Principal Magazine.  This article, titled College Readiness For All: What’s the Alternative? , can be found on the NAESP website under the “Speaking Out” section.  I’d be honored if you would give it a read.

Yesterday I saw a sticker on the back windshield of a car that said, “Those who want to be successful will find a way. Those who don’t will find an excuse.” Doesn’t this say it all?

I was moved, I was touched by this video of Benjamin Zander. I think any teacher will have the same reaction.  Enjoy.

I think Jay Mathews is one of America’s most insightful education writers. He has a regular column in The Washington Post, and he really understands the challenge of educating low-income students.

One of his columns is entitled Multiplying Benefits of College for Everyone. I read everything Jay Mathews writes and this is one of his most inspiring. Click on the link and enjoy.

I’m taking a quick and temporary detour from my usual topics to write about personal productivity. Actually I want to write about my new toy that I can justify because it really does help me be more productive.

A few months ago I said goodbye to my Blackberry and bought an iPhone. I really liked my Blackberry and I wasn’t particularly convinced that the iPhone was as good as those 10,000,000 loyal users claimed it was. But being an impulsive collector of new electronic gadgets (with a particular weakness for anything sporting an Apple logo), I swiped the card and joined the club.

I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love this iPhone! It’s everything and maybe a thousand times more than what I hoped for. Other Smartphones do some (many?) of the same things, but the iPhone is so elegant. It does everything so well, and it just works.

Here’s how the iPhone helps me be more productive.

• This phone has real Internet and a real browser.
• The Apple App Store has some killer apps (and lots of duds). My favorite productivity app is a task manager called Remember the Milk. It synchronizes automatically with my desktop and it’s bulletproof.
• The calendar does everything I want, and it syncs beautifully with my desktop. I really like to put all my travel details in the Note section of my events. I mean all of my travel details. You can easily add miscellaneous information for any appointment.
• I love the actual phone. Reception is very good, it mutes and does 3-way calling and has visual voice mail and a bunch of other cool stuff.
• I was really worried about the virtual keyboard. An actual physical QWERTY keyboard was something I loved about the Blackberry. But it only took me about 15 minutes to get used to the iPhone keyboard, and it’s almost as good as the Blackberry’s. You won’t hear me complain.

There’s lots of other things I love about this “productivity device” (iPod, email, texting, camera, notes, contacts, and the list goes on and on), but suffice it to say that this is a fantastic tool for keeping me on task and helping me get my work done.

OK, enough of this. Now it’s back to thinking and writing about topics more directly related to empowering teachers and principals.

Prescription #4:  Know the difference between REASONS and EXCUSES. It’s important that we recognize the challenges that exist in education. The key however is to understand that there is a difference between reasons and excuses. Reasons such as the fact that students live in poverty or speak a second language, share why a challenge exists in the first place. Excuses on the other hand are made when defeat is accepted and hope is lost. The best schools in our country take plenty of time identifying reasons for
poor success, but spend even more time finding solutions so that those same reasons
do not turn into excuses.

As we go forward on a mission to be openly optimistic, know this: If you are waiting for
100% of your colleagues to “get onboard” you will be waiting forever. Why? Because
schools, companies, and organizations rarely have every single person operating on the
same page. However the reason that a select few choose to be negative surprisingly has
little to do with the organization itself and everything to do with them as individuals. The
fact is that negative colleagues are not onboard in life, much less on board with the
mission of any one school. While this is frustrating and unjust, what is worse is when
Closet Optimists allow for the minority opinions of negative educators to drown out the
proactive energy of those who want to do right by kids. When schools are guided by the
negative force of a few individuals it is never an indictment of their ability to drive the
agenda. More so, it is an indictment on the reluctance from Closet Optimists to come out
of hiding and collectively assemble. When Closet Optimists allow their outward attitude
to reflect their inward spirit, amazing results tend to follow.

If you’re like me and your workday is limited to, say, 16 hours, you don’t have much time to wade around in research. My teachers and I usually chose to dream big and use innovative thinking to directly tackle really tough, real world problems. When we knew what we wanted to accomplish and then committed to not giving up or being constained by status-quo thinking, we usually came up with solutions that worked for us, in much less time and with much less effort than first spending weeks (or months) looking at research. Is that the best way to pursue systemic improvement? I don’t know, but it worked for us, and it worked well.

That being said, I read some research recently that we really need to pay attention to. Jim Collins of Good to Great fame supervised a study of high-achieving, low-income schools in Arizona. The study is called, Beat the Odds: Why Some Schools with Latino Children Beat the Odds, and Others Don’t.

Collins used the same research methodology in this study as he did in Good to Great. He found 12 elementary and middle schools in Arizona that are beating the odds. He paired each of these schools with 12 very similar schools, usually from the same district, that were not beating the odds. He then examined what each did differently.

The conclusions of his research are fascinating, if only because they confirm what we’re finding at high-achieving, low-income schools from across the nation. Collins’ study and other similar studies find that these schools all share the following characteristics:

• They have a culture that loudly proclaims that every student, without exception and without excuse (except, of course, children with profound disabilities) can be academically successful, and that the school has the ability to make that success a reality.

And, each of these schools has the following exceptional systems that are systematic, deliberate, and developed collaboratively by both the teaching staff and principal:

• teacher collaboration
• curriculum aligned to the state academic standards
• formative assessments that are designed and valued by teachers
• a means to efficiently manage the data generated by assessments
• academic and social interventions

It sounds too easy. Is it really possible to take a school blessed with serious, hard-working educators and struggling low-income students, and then take that raw material and create a truly exceptional, high-achieving school? The answer is yes. The answer is yes because school after school after school have already done so.

Knowing what to do is easy. Actually doing it is the hardest work professional educators will ever accomplish. The effort never ends. Under the best of circumstances, it takes three or four years of committed work and exceptional leadership to create the base that will lead to the creation of an academic powerhouse.

Read Beating the Odds. It will give you hope, and it will help you develop your own roadmap as you work together to create new opportunities for every student.

Prescription #3: Protect your “non-negotiable north”. “If you do what’s right, you can’t go wrong”. Many years ago, these words helped drive the way that I would make decisions as a principal and in turn became my “non-negotiable north”. Truth be told, there were times where my right seemed to be everyone else’s wrong.  However, during times where I was timid to take risks, my leadership compass always pointed me in the right direction and helped me resist the urge to stay quiet and avoid confrontation. A Closet Optimist’s lack of willingness to stand for what they believe in will almost always lead to the death of their “north”.  Because of this, we must find opportunities to take risks, do what’s right for students, and never, ever, allow the majority (or perceived majority) stop us from taking a stand.

Prescription #2:  Actively seek perspective. Far too often we as educators live in a “woe is me” cycle where we think our school, our class, and our job must be harder than anyone else’s. Because of this, it is important that we gain perspective by sharing the success stories of those who have generated far greater accomplishments in spite of far greater challenges. Seeking a great story to offer perspective to your colleagues?  Start by watching the documentary Darius Goes West. This 90-minute film will offer perspective and motivate you to accept and confront your challenges head on.  Take a look at the “vehicle” below.

Those who read this blog know that I’m a huge supporter of Michelle Rhee. I find her to be one of the boldest and most inspirational maverick leaders in America today. This article about her leadership appeared in the November 16, 2008 issue of Parade Magazine. Enjoy.