What We Really Assess

I have recently started reading a book that I really like. How Children Succeed by Paul Tough takes a look at what critical factors make or break students in school and in life. (I'm thinking of offering a book study in the spring!) The argument is that grit and character have more to do with success than cognitive ability. In the introduction, Tough discusses the GED program in America. It began in the 1950s as an acceleration program, not a way for dropouts to gain a diploma. The idea is not all too unfamiliar with some of the programs that are emerging now. If a student can show that they have the knowledge necessary to earn a diploma, they can bypass the traditional classes through a test and in a school and skip straight to the next stage of their life.

Studies quickly emerged to track students that took this option in the 1960s and 1970s. One in particular has followed a group for over 40 years. It compares life after school with GED graduates and traditional high school graduates.  Of the group, just 3% of the GED grads continued on to a four-year university compared to 46% of traditional graduates. The study concluded that when you examine all factors that define success (annual income, unemployment rate, divorce rate, use of illegal drugs, etc.) GED graduates look exactly like high school dropouts. How could that be? Their completion of the test proves that they are cognitively smarter than high school dropouts. The thing that they have in common is a lack of perseverance and a sense of delayed gratification. They have no grit.

The exams that students take this week will show us cognitive ability and content mastery. Some students will do well, some will not, and most will do just about what we thought they would do.  Despite how they perform, remember that they are still in the game. They still show up to work, and while they do not always perform day-to-day as we would hope, they come back and give us a shot at connecting with them tomorrow. That trait gives them a better shot at success after school than quitting ever will.

Teacher Leadership

A priest offered a nun a ride. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to revel her bare leg. The priest nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg. The nun said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?"

The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg once again. The nun once again said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The priest apologized, "Sorry sister but the flesh is weak."

Arriving at the convent, the nun sighed heavily and went on her way.

On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, "Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory."

The moral of the story: If you are not well informed in your job, opportunities for advancement will pass right by you.


Today is the last day for Dawn Herring at Greene Central High School and I want to take the opportunity to celebrate everything that she has done for our school and the students within it. Dawn has an opportunity for advancement, and unlike the priest in the story, she is taking her shot. She will be moving on to Wayne County Schools to serve as the Assistant EC Director and while I hate to lose her expertise as a teacher and coach, I am happy for her.

Teacher leadership is sometimes a double-edged sword. Teachers that put themselves out there to do more to impact the school and grow professionally, often do decide to take opportunities to work and lead in other capacities. As a principal, you love what they do and you hate to see them move on, but at the same time it is amazing to watch a teacher grow. Make no mistake about it, I want teachers that want to grow. No matter what you are passionate about, grow in that area and don't be afraid to excel. Teacher leadership does more than improving classrooms or programs. It also inspires students and other teachers to do more themselves. Today I want to congratulate Ms. Herring and all other teacher leaders that are not afraid to step
up and take a shot at what matters to them. No matter if your leadership keeps you in the classroom or takes you out, your service is infectious.

What Do Teachers Do?

While I do not like the reason that we had to meet yesterday to discuss the low performing school status that is upon us, I did like many of the discussions and thoughtfulness that came as a result. Many of you have become quite adept at evaluation policy and understanding legislation concerning schools. I am proud that you understand what our school does for students and that many of you were more angry at the situation than worried or upset for yourselves. To be fair, it would be easy for you to simply not care. You could decide to wash your hands of the problem and switch schools or professions and walk away from the issue. But that's not what teachers do. Teachers fight the "I don't care" attitude. While that attitude is the bane of our existence, and is probably the #1 thing teachers complain about, it is 100% the reason that you are here.

Much like principals do not have an endless line of "blue data" teachers waiting at their door, no classroom consists of students that all walk in eager to learn and work each and every day. The human element within us all requires leadership, motivation and a personal connection to sustain or even begin hard work. That is where you come in. Any student in the digital age with enough personal drive and ambition can certainly learn anything that they want to know. Google and the Internet put knowledge at everyone's fingertips. So if all of the knowledge is already out there, why do we need people and places to give us knowledge? The truth is that we don't. What we need now and have needed always are people and places that inspire knowledge to want to be learned. And while your position calls you 'teachers' perhaps a more appropriate title would be 'hope dealers,' 'imagination builders' or simply 'inspirers.'

Any teacher that has been around long enough to have a student return to visit them is already aware of this. Students do not remember that fantastic lesson that you wrote on the Second National Bank or the cute rhyme you created to get them to learn the quadratic formula. They remember how you inspired them and challenged them to think. Teachers that grow students are the ones that battle apathy as it walks through the door and make students care. You turn on mental lightbulbs despite a student's best effort to cut the cord. Making a student care at any ability level will always be the deciding factor in establishing student growth on any subject. Despite any label placed upon us, know that you did your part in that arena. Keep growing and inspiring students to care and together we will take care of the rest.



I was reminded last night of this video, and while it was written from a student perspective in regards to frustration with standardized testing (likely a sentiment many of our students feel) I believe that it rings true for us as well.

Making Moves

Over the Thanksgiving break my family and I took the plunge and moved to Greene County. We have been wanting to move here for several months and the right opportunity presented itself so we went for it. (My house in Farmville still has not sold, so if you know anyone looking to buy I'd love you to tell them!) Growing up, my family moved about every four years and I grew to detest moving. It's not the heavy lifting I hate, but the process. Moving forces you to go through all of your old things and evaluate what you need to keep and what you should part with. It's time consuming and sometimes difficult to part with things that you know you have not seen or touched in years. Inevitably, you will end up in an argument with your spouse over an item or where something will or will not go in the new house.  While I hate the process, I have to admit that I am happy with the result. We love our new home and we are much better off having evaluated what we needed to keep and what we did not need. The process was messy but the end product was worth it.

The process did get me thinking about teaching. Teachers are notorious pack rats. We horde things that we think we will use later and things tend to sit around. Maybe a good clean out is good from time to time for us as well. But I'm not just talking about the physical things like old activities and lesson plan notebooks. What old practices do you still have that maybe need to be let go as well? Are there areas where you could clean out and move up?

I attended our District Literacy Framework Team meeting yesterday and we examined some common practices that we saw across all grade levels in our district. While most of the teaching practices had some very good things to offer, I also saw some things that commonly looked like teacher-centered instruction. The teacher was doing all the talking, and student engagement was low. These are old things that hang around in our practice. They are easy practices to keep, but we really know deep down that we should probably throw them out. Take some time to consider what you may be keeping in your practice that could use a good cleaning. Consider making a move up!

You're Faaannn-Tastic!

Yesterday I joined the other principals in the district in walking through math classrooms in several different schools so that we could look for mathematics practices at different levels. Math is a district priority this year and we are looking for some universal best-practices as they compare to research. I saw great teachers from the Early College all the way down to a Kindergarten classroom and I was really able to learn a lot from each. Despite the assignment of looking for math language and strategic questioning, I couldn't help but look for general teaching practice. I am a strong believer that you can teach anything to students of any age if your methods are engaging enough to capture their attention and interest.  Out of all of the classrooms, I think that the very best thing I saw yesterday was in the Kindergarten classroom. The teacher had a practice of having kids celebrate each other when they got a question right and celebrate themselves when they had mastered a concept as a group.  As each child answered a question correctly in front of the class, the whole class recited, "You're Faaannn-Tastic!" Each and every child walked back to their spot on the carpet with a smile and a glowing sense of accomplishment.

Certainly this classroom practice is too juvenile for our teenagers...or is it? Watch our successful athletes when they practice and compete. Leaders on the team often congratulate teammates when they do well and encourage them when they make mistakes. They do it in different ways, but what they are really saying is, "You're Faaannn-Tastic!" How many of us have this kind of culture in our classrooms? Sure, many of us encourage kids and praise them when they do well, but is it done by peers as well? Do we celebrate academic achievement publicly? If you have ever had the privilege of being recognized for your efforts at a staff meeting, just think about how it made you feel about your work and your willingness to continue to make a difference. If we did this in our classrooms, could it make an impact on student effort and in their grit toward things that are hard? I'm challenging you to work to build this kind of culture in your classrooms. Every one of your students learned this kind of practice in Kindergarten, so it shouldn't be hard to replicate. If you can build this in your class, you might just be Faaannn-Tastic too!

Alexander Hamilton

This past weekend I saw several television shows featuring a writer, actor and rap artist named Lin-Manuel Miranda. He currently has a Broadway musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton performed in modern rap. The show has been wildly successful and already has pre-orders for tickets over $56 million. I first heard of Lin-Manuel in 2009 when he performed a rap at a White House state dinner about the life of Hamilton. You can find the video here. A social studies teacher showed it to me and told me all about having her kids communicate with Lin-Manuel via Twitter to ask questions about his motivation and style as they were assigned to write similar performances about the lives of other founding fathers.

The story of Alexander Hamilton is great and one truly founded in the concept of grit. An orphaned immigrant moves to America, works incredibly hard and eventually designs the foundation for our entire monetary system. He was passionate about his goals and driven to success. It was these character traits that resonated with Lin-Manuel Miranda. 

Miranda attended a school for gifted and talented students, however his talent was in the arts, not in the regular classroom like almost all other students in the school. In his 60 minutes interview, the reporter asked Lin-Manuel why he had been so successful despite "treading water" academically in this school. Lin-Manuel responded, "I found my lane and I stuck with it and ran." He was simply determined to be successful in what he was passionate about. When he read a biography about the life of Hamilton on vacation, he was hooked.  Here was a man that he could connect with and a personality that resonated with his own.

Determination and passion to succeed can often overcome other shortcomings in life. When all signs point to failure (or in our world "at-risk") these traits seem to more than level the playing field. I see the same in many of you in your classrooms. Successful and memorable teachers are the ones that are determined and passionate about what they do. They are the ones that students truly believe eat, sleep and breathe the lessons that they teach because of how involved they become. So what is it that makes you passionate about what you teach? Can your students see it? Are you running in your lane? If so, maybe there's a little Alexander Hamilton in you too.

My Parent Hat

Dr. Miller has the principals of Greene County working on a book study on parental and community involvement. I'll admit that it is a topic that I struggle with from time to time. I think I can usually handle parents and community members well, but at least half of my parent interactions are negative due to grades or discipline and getting community partnerships that work is often a long and arduous process. I love my positive experiences with parents. I relish them. The not-so-positive ones can take the wind out of your sails and make you question every decision you ever made. Lately, many of my tough conversations with parents have had little or nothing to do with the academic success of their child and more to do with playing time, leaving for lunch or poor behavior choices. When parents and school personnel disagree on those items, there is usually not much middle ground. (Thought: By not finding an alternate viewpoint, did I just fail the Milgram test from last week?)

Amidst my struggling with ideas on how to engage parents, I visited the teachers of my own children to get their report cards this week. The duty has formerly been handled by my wife, but now that the girls are in school in Greene County, I have earned the job. My visit to Snow Hill Primary and Mrs. Cook's class was awesome! I had a great discussion on how my child is doing, what specifically she can do to improve, how it links to assessments and what I can do to help. As a parent, I left feeling so empowered and proud! While I'm certain that Mrs. Cook was probably hesitant about talking with a principal that she barely knows, her professionalism and honest critique of my child's learning were so great that it changed my mind about parent contact and communication all together.

So there I am on cloud nine, and then I visit West Greene for my oldest child, Rylee. Rylee is smart, but she is too much like her father and she gets herself into situations that often take great work to get out of. While her academics were good, I listened to her teacher talk about behaviors such as hanging from bathroom stall doors and a foiled attempt to purposely trip another girl in class. Her teacher was honest with me (and I appreciate that) but I left struggling with what to do (other than threaten to strangle my child before we left the parking lot.)

I say all of this, because we are at the point in the semester where we know that we need to do something about our kids that are not cutting it. Just about every teacher has kids that have given up, skipped classes or acted out to the point of utter frustration. You need administrative and parental reinforcements and for the right kid you might just do anything to get them working and behaving again! Being a parent is tough. Some do a great job at it and some down right suck at it, but both of those parents have times that are tough with their kids. Please make the effort to connect with your student's parents and if you need help, please let me help you do that. Remember to contact the parents of those kids that are doing well too. Those make us feel just as good as it makes them feel. If you're up to it, take up the challenge that I posted last year of making just one positive phone call home per week. Good or bad, all kids make mistakes and they desperately need adults in their lives to help them when they do.