MeTA musings

Clay, Soldwedel and Many in Aligning School Districts as PLCs:

Loose and tight leadership is based on the premise that relying exclusively on either a tight "top-down" or a loose "bottom-up" leadership approach is not effective.  Fullan (2009) has said: "Top-down change doesn't work because it fails to garner ownership, commitment, or even clarity about the nature of the reform.  Bottom-up change -- so-called let a thousand flowers bloom -- does not produce success on any scale.  A thousands flowers do not bloom and those that do are not perennial."  The implication is that a balance between loose and tight provides an optimum leadership style.  Of course, getting that balance right is the challenge." (p. 24)

In the district I work at, I believe we value bottom-up ideas, however there's not enough time in the day (nor is it realistic) to seek input on every single decision.  I'm not naive enough to think I am a part of the ideal tight-loose leadership model in action, however I thought of a few examples that lead me to believe we're on the right track.

• Requiring all teachers to be a part of a collaborative team
• providing the teams with time to meet during the contract day twice per month.
• asking teams to set a SMART goal for the year within the framework of our district and building goals
• Requiring teams to create agendas and minutes every time they meet
• providing teams with Google Docs so that agendas and minutes can be created on the fly, accessible to building and district administrators, rather than requiring extra paperwork to turn in.
• providing self-paced Google Docs tutorials and help sessions.  

I'd load up with...

10/25/2011 Update
The video below is designed to be used with teachers and administrators to discuss shifts in grading.

Note: the footage was used at a technology-related learning conference, so some of the questions posed have this context in mind.


4/20/2011 Update
Slides used in today's presentation



The script used today can be found here.

Both are available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.



Russ and I have been invited to co-facilitate a morning session at the Iowa 1:1 Institute to be held April 20, 2011 at the Polk County Convention Center.  All I can say right now is that it's going to be a unique session.  The trailer below tells the rest of the story.  

I've written several times about the importance of feedback as a classroom teacher.  I'm a big fan of using feedback from teachers to improve future professional learning as an administrator, too.   Just like the classroom setting, it's not easy crafting the right kind of questions for adults either.  Here are a few likert scale statements that have solicited valuable insights in the past.

• The facilitator was effective in his/her role (Were the people leading the learning doing a good job?)
• I believe there will be adequate follow-up from my colleagues related to this learning (Is there an underlying belief this was a one-and-done learning opportunity or will it be sustainable?)
• I believe there will be adequate follow-up from building/district administrators related to this learning? (Will the administration be a viable support system or was this an isolated waste of time?)
• I believe this learning will directly benefit my students (Perhaps one of the most important questions - Do staff members feel what they learned today will help the students they teach?)

Please add constructive feedback related to this professional learning experience

I'd like to do a better job receiving feedback from teachers so that our leadership team can be even more focused in our future professional learning planning.  I believe one way we can improve is by taking a careful look at the questions asked of our staff.  What questions is your building, district or leadership team using?  What questions have I missed?  Leave them in the comments below.

A teacher at a neighboring school district that I've consulted with previously recently emailed me a question.

"I am looking at my grades for my classes and I am a little worried that my grades for my students are maybe too good. There is no one with a C or less. I obviously don’t want my students to do bad but shouldn’t there be at least one student that isn’t doing good?..."

This email could have just as easily asked...

"...There is no one with a B or better.  I obviously want my students to do well, but shouldn't there be at least one student that is doing well?..."

Here was my response:

• Be less concerned with the number of A's, B's, C's, etc. students are earning in your class.
• Be more concerned with ensuring the grades students are earning accurately represent their current level of understanding.
• Be more concerned that your grading system ensures students have an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding at any given time within the grading period, not just "by the test date."
• Be more concerned that you've clearly communicated the purpose of your grading system with parents and students.

From assignment-based grading to standards-based grading
It's worth double checking.  Are our grading systems setup to communicate current levels of understanding or do they continue to report point accumulation based on assignments?

What did I forget in my response to this teacher?