A New Direction for Iowa

On December 29, governor-elect Terry Branstad introduced all of us to our new director of the Department of Education, Jason Glass. Glass is a young man that has travelled on the express elevator to the top of educational leadership and brings with him a very interesting resume. I have always been skeptical of individuals who profess to have the answers to complex educational issues who have not spent years in the trenches, but then again, there are no criteria for leadership entitled Years Served. Glass has expressed ideas that are common among some folks involved in the school reform movement, and like anything that is as politically charged as education, he has those who agree and disagree with his positions. I for one have believed in a merit pay system for a long time. I agree that the best teachers should earn more than those who do not perform as well. My opinions differ from many, as I do not believe that the balance of that judgment should be based on the test scores of their students. Certainly student performance should be a factor, but until someone comes up with a better measure of that than what I have seen, I am not sold on the examples that have been floated out there.

I would encourage Mr. Glass to spend some time looking at what we have in Iowa. In one of the first interviews I read, he made some critical comments, and expressed some plans that I believe he should have held back so early on. Of course the politician that appointed him has given him background, but I have to believe that he is also smart enough to take a look at what is actually happening in Iowa schools. For instance, the teacher evaluation system we have is a lot more than a quick run through the classroom and a check form. He stated in his interview that is was something that an administrator only spent twenty to thirty minutes on. That changed about six years ago when Iowa adopted a new teacher evaluation system. Perhaps not all principals are doing it with integrity, but I can tell you that I spend hours each year on a teacher’s evaluation, not just twenty minutes. And, I have seen teachers improve because of evaluation.

The Iowa Core Curriculum is another matter that I hope he looks at closely. The Republicans right now have a bill drafted to cut funding for it and to get rid of all of the work that has been done. Talk about a waste of time! Thousands of Iowa educators have been working on this process the past few years and just when we are approaching implementation, the new folks in town want to dump it. Please Mr. Glass, take a look at what it is first. After all, in math and reading, the Iowa Core is the same as the national standards. In fact, it goes beyond the national standards! My hope is that the good that is in the Iowa Core will be saved, but more importantly, let us move forward!

Having not yet met Mr. Glass, I have not developed an opinion of how effectively he will lead our educational system. I do know that we must get better in Iowa. I myself have been frustrated at the glacial speed of some changes, but what we need is someone that is going to articulate the need for change to the individuals of this state. The is a strongly held believe among Iowans that “school was good enough for me when I was a kid, what’s wrong with it now?” The black and white television was good enough in the 1950’s, but it most certainly is not good enough now.

Khan Academy on the Gates Notes

At the start of the current school year, I had the high school staff bring their laptop computers to our faculty meeting and share with them an online site called Khan Academy. My purpose was to introduce them to lessons that could be used as tutorials for students, and supplements for instruction. The vast majority of over 1800 lessons are for math. Take a few minutes and browse through some of them at khanacademy.org, but first, take a look at the video that I have included to get a little better perspective of what you are going to see.

The End is Near

I guess that's kind of an ominous title to a blog entry! Actually, I am referring to the end of the first semester and the calendar year! This is our first attempt at putting together a school calendar that has the first semester end before Winter Break. We knew that once it came to semester tests, weather was going to be an concern, and thus we have kept our fingers crossed that we would not lose a day in this last week. As I write this, we have a late start today, forcing us to shorten up the testing periods. Not what we had hoped, but it could have been worse. The lesson learned is that we may want to make a few adjustments in the schedule next year to be in better shape in case we do have a late start.

While this is the first year for this calendar at North Fayette, I have worked with one like it for a number of years. What I do know is that December feels very stressed, but once we finish and everyone goes on break, it is over. There is a huge relief because we don't have to come back and finish up a semester. And, students will perform better on exams rather than getting away from school for two weeks and then be expected to prep for a big test. People are refreshed after the break and once they get back, it is nice to start a new semester.

So, the end is near! And the beauty of this is that in just a couple of weeks, we have a new beginning!

Drinking and Drugs and the Reality of Kids Using Them

I haven’t focused previously on the topic of teenage alcohol or drug use in large part because it is a topic that gets a lot of attention elsewhere, and because quite honestly, I am tired of people giving the problem little more than lip-service. Do we have a problem with alcohol and other drugs at North Fayette High School? Absolutely! We have about 300 students and statistically, we have students that use and abuse alcohol and other drugs. I am not going to condemn or scold. What I want to focus on is a newspaper article from the Des Moines Register that I have been dragging around since November 21 by Rekha Basu. I don’t always agree with her position on issues, but I must say I learned a lot from her article on this day, and have re-read it a few times.

There was a lot to the article that I think is relevant. For example, brain research, which has shed a great deal of light on learning, has also opened our eyes to a number of other things as well. What we now know for certain is that an adolescent brain, since it is still developing, reacts much differently to drug use than an adult brain. Thus, a 15-year old that starts drinking is five times more likely to become addicted than a 21-year old. Young adolescents are “wired” differently and the developing brain is more susceptible to this kind of stimulus. Is your 15-year old drinking? If so, are you prepared to have an alcoholic in your family because you don’t step in and do something about it? Basu attended a conference for journalists in San Diego focused on addiction studies and came away from it with a firm belief that the longer we keep kids away from drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, the better. Just a few years of brain development makes a world of difference and this is one of those instances when we must as parents do everything we can to convince our kids that they can wait, and perhaps save their life.

Addiction is a tough thing, and if the likelihood that we will be addicted increases dramatically based on when we start using a substance, then as parents shouldn’t we pay very close attention to what our kids are doing? Let me demonstrate. I started chewing tobacco when I was in fourth grade. I didn’t chew snuff as my preference was leaf tobacco. My parents were aware of it, and actually I started because my dad started using smokeless tobacco to wean himself from cigarettes. Anyway, when I finally quit, it was after so many attempts that I cannot count. It has been almost three years since my last chaw of Redman, but just this week I had a craving and fought going to the store and buying a pouch. I can imagine what it is like for smokers and drinkers. My point, and the research supports it, is that I was nine or ten years old when I started chewing tobacco. Had I not started until later in my life, perhaps I would not have become an addict. Think about that with children in high school that start drinking at such a young age. Lives are severely damaged due to alcohol and drug use. What might your child’s life be like if you talk to them regularly and take a tough stand against the use of alcohol and drugs. Maybe they will live a long and fulfilling life.

Is 99.9% Good Enough?

A lot has been said over the years in high schools about high expectations, usually accompanied by comments along the lines of how grades today are inflated and the quality of student work isn’t what it once was. I know a number of veteran teachers feel that way, but when one steps back, perhaps there is a lot more to the conversation than what is on the top layer. From my own background, growing up I was always challenged to do my very best. I can still hear my mom tell me “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” My dad did a lot of work as a professor with Deming’s focus on total quality and continuous improvement. All this takes me to a list that I pull out every so often to put in front of people when the conversation turns to effort and quality.

In most schools, grading scales are generally somewhere along the lines of 90% and above an A, 80% for a B, and so on. In this scale, 60% is good enough to pass. Now I have real issues with traditional grading, which is something I will address at length in future posts, but regardless of that, can we be satisfied with 60 out of 100 being good enough? Well, let’s take a look at that, and just to make it interesting, let’s look a little higher. How about 99.9 times out of 100? If we get it right than many times, shouldn’t that be good enough? Let’s see!

If we “settle” for 99.9% accuracy, that would mean:
• 22,000 checks would be deducted from the wrong bank account in the next 60 minutes.
• 12 babies would be given to the wrong parents each day.
• 107 incorrect medical procedures would be performed each day.
• Two airliner landings each day at O’Hare Airport would be unsafe.
• 291 pacemaker operations will be performed incorrectly this year.
• Southwest Airlines would have 702 planes crash annually.
• 20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions will be written this year.
• 32,000 missed heartbeats per person per year.
• 103,260 income tax returns will be processed incorrectly during the year.

So, should we allow our students to settle for 60% correct as a passing grade? I would argue “No!” From my perspective, it isn’t so much about what individuals are capable of doing, and it really doesn’t matter in terms of a grade. What it is about is self-respect and pride; a willingness to do one’s best. I think that is the difference between our current generation and one’s in the past. There needs to be a focus on doing one’s best rather than enough to get by. Otherwise, is it worth doing?

Veterans Day => It’s A Wonderful Life!

As I watched a bit of the matinee for our schools Veteran’s Day program, a coincidence occurred to me. In the same auditorium on the same day, our students were gathered to pay tribute to our nation’s veterans as well as to watch a matinee performance of our fall production of It’s a Wonderful Life. The coincidence? One does not come without the other. In this great nation we live in, we in fact live a wonderful life due to the men and women who fought for it. The irony that both programs took place in the same room within a few hours of each other caused me to reflect a great deal on our current status in the world. It troubles me at times that we have thousands of soldiers deployed in harms way, yet it is often quite easy to forget that we are a nation at war. It is like we have decided to go on with life and let those folks do what they do. I know it can’t be that way for the families of those men and women. It makes me question how we can be so focused on issues like getting rid of judges in our state, fighting over issues related to tolerance, and pointing fingers across the isle at one another in Congress, yet soldiers are placing their lives on the line every day and many of us hardly seem to notice. I remember the body counts announced every night during Vietnam, and while I am sure no one wants to return to that time, it makes me wonder why we are not more focused on the faces of those that serve. Yes, we live a wonderful life, but I think it is imperative that we constantly keep in mind those that have given it to us.

Brain Matters

Three years ago I attended a general session at the NASSP National Convention that featured Daniel Pink as the keynote speaker. I have referenced him in other posts and strongly encourage you to read his two most recent books Drive and A Whole New Mind. In each of those he addresses how he sees us moving ahead in the future and how we will need to interact in the American economy if the United States is to remain the leading nation in the world. I have included a clip that features Pink on how we need to look differently at how we train individuals to be contributors in our new global economy.