What You Focus On

My kids say some crazy stuff at times. One of the benefits of my job is that I get to take them to and from school every day and I get to talk to them during that time. That's not a luxury that I had when I worked in another district and I saw very little of them then. On a trip to school this week, my girls were talking about how bad 2020 has been so far. They highlighted recent bad events such as the impeachment trial, the coronavirus, the earthquake in Cuba and the recent death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter. Being the optimist that I am, I asked them if anything good had happened. They quickly said no, but then started listing out things that were good for them personally along with good things that they were looking forward to later this year. They then concluded that the year wasn't that bad, but it was just the bad things that they were focusing on. Similarly, I was working on a different message for my blog post this week and the more and more I thought through it, the more negative it got. I was also guilty of focusing on the bad things.

I recently sent some data from the first semester to our School Improvement and Leadership Teams. It covers teacher growth data from EVAAS, first-semester course grades and student discipline. It's the first time I have tried doing a "status report" of this type for anyone other than myself and it's the first time I've taken a multi-year look at some of these things. What I found was something good to focus on. Here's some of the good news:

• Our percent of College Ready students measured by the Pre-ACT has steadily increased from 9.18% in 2016-2017 to 22.64% this year.
• Our courses where teachers made or exceeded growth (according to EVAAS) has increased from 38 in 2017 to 61 in 2019
• Only 9% of courses were failed in the first semester this year
• Only 3% of courses were failed by a Senior
• Only 9 community college courses were failed this Fall while over 120 courses finished with an A or B

It's human nature to focus on problems and to think about the one student that drives you crazy, one lesson that bombs, one policy that needs to be fixed or whatever else that drives you crazy. But when those things become your focus, you create an image that the world around you is bad. For me, it literally makes me feel bad. Changing that focus and deciding to see the wealth of good that is around you can be life-changing, and some studies even think it can make you live longer. The next couple of months ahead of us are traditionally difficult for schools. This semester, let's focus on the good by sharing good news. If something has gone well or you have something from your classes or your professional learning to celebrate, send it out to all of us. That change in focus can be the difference in seeing 2020 as a good year, or a bad one.