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Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Pushing Beyond the 20% Barrier

Molly Stark Elementary School has fallen short of its collective potential. We are an under-performing school. Test scores bear this point out.

How can we catch up to where we could be, where we need to be, given the restrictions of time and resources? The school year is similar to every other school throughout the state and country - 6.5 hours for each of 180 days in a school year. Our budget is not likely to rise appreciably within the constraints of the local economy.

Furthermore, when you assume that children sleep for 8 hours a day, out of a calendar year of 365 days (365 x 16 = 5,840 hours) and recognize their time in school (6.5 hours x 180 days = 1,170 hours) you find that children are only in school for 20% (1,170/5,840) of their waking hours. This limits our ability to effect a positive and constructive impact on their pursuit of potential.

Our school has developed and initiated significant changes in our infrastructure (master schedule and space allocations) and staff development (curricular focused PD, issue oriented faculty meetings). Beyond these two vital areas, we have sought to extend our reach and expand our influence without tapping our budget or stretching our work day.

Yesterday capped a lengthy process involving three different entities addressing a perceived need - providing access to books to our learners outside of the school hours. Our school, which provides free and reduced meals to 81% of the children, is located across the street from a public housing project that is home to 13% of our learner population. 

We approached the management of the housing project with the idea of building shelves full of books in their community center in the form of a free lending library. They welcomed the possibility.

Our staff began collecting gently used books. We reached out to the Southern Vermont Career and Development Center and asked if their Buildings and Trades department would be willing to accept the task of constructing bookshelves. They readily accepted after an anonymous benefactor of the school supplied the funds for materials.

All of the participating groups were brought together yesterday morning and started stocking the shelves of the lending library. It was exciting to see the crew of carpenters (headed by their teacher - who grew up in the housing project), together with the superintendent of the CDC,  partner with five of our elementary school learners and the reading teacher who spearheaded the collection of books, and join with the director of the housing project to fill the shelves.

We hope to fill the minds of our learners by increasing their access to literature outside of the school day.

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Reflecting on Reflection

I retired as a superintendent in New York two years ago. My wife and I moved to another part of the state, along the border with Vermont, after the birth of our only grandchild. Soon thereafter, I accepted the opportunity to resume my school leadership career as a principal in Vermont, just across the border. This enabled me to collect my pension in New York and my salary in Vermont.

I enjoy the return to leadership at the building level, but composing blog entries has been a struggle recently. This dormant period happens to coincide with my acceptance of a the principal's position a year and a half ago. 

The educational alchemist blog originated when I assumed the role of a school superintendent in 2010. I began to pen entries in earnest, offering perspectives on rising issues or simple reflections on daily activities. Entries during that fertile writing period averaged at east four posts a week. There was ample time to indulge in thought. The words surged forth and my fingers danced along keyboard. I enjoyed the exercise of expressing thoughts because it prompted me to examine what I experienced and reconstruct it in words. That introspection nurtured growth.

This weekend was the first time in weeks and weeks that I found, or made, the time to write. Whenever I questioned myself about the absence of posts I mustered several possible reasons, ranging from indifference, laziness, to a general lack of opportunity. I arrived at what I imagine to be the culprit. It was hidden within me, perhaps because I didn't want to confront the matter, perhaps it was due to an apparent simplicity of explanation that might render the reason too easy for the reader to dismiss, particularly if they are a school superintendent. 

That's the point of this blog entry. The daily role of the superintendent usually affords the district leader more time to reflect. While the schedule is cluttered with meetings, many of them (i.e. policy development, strategic planning, budget forecasting...) are focused on a linger view into the future and that proverbial "big picture."  

I never felt that assuming the role of a superintendent endowed me with greater knowledge or insight than I possessed as a principal. Instead, I explained the difference as a matter of a hierarchy of perspectives. That is, when I was a teacher, my view was limited, like someone sitting in a room with a lone window that narrowed the view outside to that single frame. When I became a principal, I found that I now had windows on two sides of the four walls. Therefore, I was able to see things that elude someone restricted to one window. When I became a superintendent, I discovered windows on all four walls. I wasn't any smarter, I just had views (i.e. on personnel, negotiations, budgets...) that was unavailable to most others.

We tend to limit ourselves because the realities of our day obscure our vision and opportunity to reflect. The constant assault of people, needs, conflict... whether it's a teacher contending with 25 learners all day or a principal addressing issues that pop up unexpectedly, like discipline, prevents one from pausing to reflect on our actions and words. There is an expression I learned in Texas that explains the situation - "When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's hard to remember your job was to drain the pool." 

This is not to say that a superintendent is immune from the unanticipated issue or surprising development (and I fully understand from experience that the extent and reach of such problems are deeper and farther), but they usually have more control over their time. Their todays do not necessarily hold their tomorrows hostage. 

As a principal, my day too often seems like one long game of "whack-a-mole," the carnival game where something pops up and you task is to use a mallet to hit it back down - except that as soon as one pops up and you nit  it, another pops up, then another, and another... Perhaps a classier way to describe it is the Greek myth of Sisyphus, the character who spent his day rolling a large boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down and prompt another perpetual trek up the hill - again and again and all over again. In short, there's little time to sit back and reflect on whats happened and how you responded and learned from the issue.

This entry is an apologetic explanation of my intermittent blog posts, while reflecting on the issues that have limited my writing, and offering a perspective on a difference between the role of a principal and that of a superintendent.








Saturday, November 4, 2017

The Language of Leadership

There are a legion of books written on the subject of leadership. I have read more than my share of these texts. While I have cultivated much from these resources, my most simplistic view on principles underlying effective leadership begin with the manner in which we communicate. Specifically, the words we choose when speaking in any leadership role.

I believe that the appropriate point to start a discussion like this is the manner in which the formal leader of an organization refers to him/herself when speaking about the organization. Use of the personal "I" will not support an empowered work force and enlist them in pursuit of goals. Rather, when the formal leader employs the use of "we" or "our" in explaining the operation and aspirations of the organization.

Empowerment takes on heightened importance because it can increase commitment and outputs when people feel aligned with a greater purpose guiding an environment oriented to growing people as well as growing the success of the organization.

Money alone is not the incentive for people to invest fully in their work. It has been shown to not be a motivator, but rather a satisfier. The long term interests and needs of an organization rest on a compelling and credible vision, a meaningful mission, and most importantly a perception by the individual that they matter and make a difference within an organization that values and nurtures the opportunity to grow as a person.

Consider the advice of Bill O'Brien, a successful CEO who is quoted in Peter Senge's book, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook:


Our traditional organizations are designed to provide for the first three levels of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs – food, shelter, and belonging. Since these are widely available to members of an industrial society, these organizations do not provide anything particularly unique to command the loyalty and commitment of people. The ferment in management today will continue until organizations begin to address the higher order needs: self-respect and self-actualization."











Moving Boulders

Our Shared Decision Making Team, comprised of parents, teachers, and support staff, examined the needs of our school last year. The result of their study inspired them to invest in solutions to two vexing issues: the assigned locations of classrooms, and the master schedule. Members divided into two different groups, with each assigned to create responses to the pair of problems and improve our infrastructure. They met regularly with a collective commitment that served to forge a spirit of cooperation focused on meaningful matters that had been absent within the school. The process became as important as the desired product. There was a purpose that inspired and sustained their efforts and energy.

This team performed the heavy lifting. They generated a radically new master schedule that replaced the confusing framework that had previously inhibited collaboration and achievement. The new schedule provided common planning periods across each grade level, which included extending opportunities for collaboration that can advance instructional gains. Each special area class period was the same length, as opposed to the 30 minute Physical Education class twice per week, and the single 50 minute Music, Library, and Art lessons every week. The unaligned time periods disrupted attempts to work together on common needs and interests.

Finally, placing classrooms in proximity to their respective grades enhanced possibilities for teachers partnering and reduced time in transition for learners and interventionist in Reading and Math, as well as special education providers.

Together these two significant changes in infrastructure are designed to promote progress in learning outcomes. The Shared Decision making Team has moved the boulder and it's up to the staff to maintain the momentum for improvement.

Teachers as First Responders


Teachers as First Responders



I am appreciative of all those people who serve in the capacity of first responders. They encounter unimaginable experiences when reaching those in need. The recent shootings in Las Vegas that resulted in 58 deaths and hundreds wounded is a large scale tragedy, a carnival of carnage that must have produced horrific scenes. Thank you to those who willingly help others in distress.

That said, I want to shift the focus from the first responders of doctors, nurses, police, EMT’s who arrive to treat the injured, protect the innocent, or fight fires, to those who have a somewhat different relationship with trauma.

A cadre of our teachers recently received training in research and practices regarding children living with adverse experiences. Unfortunately, there is a growing need to support children impacted by trauma, due to a variety of reasons – incarcerated parents, addictive behaviors within the home, divorce or loss, generational poverty…

In addition to the speaker’s presentation on the physiological influence of stress, we examined two case studies of children that would allow us insight into the lives of specific learners. The more we heard about the challenges that faced these individuals, the more it became apparent that teachers are often performing roles similar to first responders. Although they do not face the dangers confronting police, fire, or emergency medical staff, teachers regularly bear witness to trauma of a different nature. The burden of frequently receiving narratives of misery, hurt, and loss, that may form a toxic combination with the potential to devolve into a sense of helplessness and/or hopelessness, exacts a toll on the emotions of teachers. The result has been referred to as vicarious trauma, or compassion fatigue.

But a review of professional development activities involving schools and trauma would likely reveal that the focus of the training is centered on how teachers can understand and respond to the needs of children experiencing trauma, rather than providing the resources and strategies for teachers to cope with the impact of contending with the stream of trauma they too regularly meet with.

As a result, I supplied the staff with several different articles:

When Students are Traumatized, Teachers are too, by Emelina Minero .

How to Support Stressed-out Teachers, by Joyce Dorado and Vicki Zakrzewski

Managing Vicarious Trauma and Compassion Fatigue, by Heather M. Helm

The more information and insight I digested on the issue, the more empathy I found for staff members who resolutely wrestle with the needs of children in impoverished environments like the community we serve. Though the focus of general professional development experiences address common core elements or a string of state or federally mandated assessments and forms of accountability, the more pressing needs in underperforming and underserved schools are often associated with the affective domain.