Another installment of readings from Lead. Learn. Change., the book, pages 42 to 55. All profits from the sale of the book support the Allene Magill Memorial Scholarship fund, helping paraprofessionals pursuing their dream of becoming classroom teachers.
SHOW NOTES:
Set your direction - Which Gear?
Improvement isn’t instantaneous, but movement toward it is manifested in individual moments
Begin with those you serve - Who’s on First?
PAGE Break – CCRPI
Don’t dwell solely on answers. Spend time getting the questions right.
Working on the Work: an Action Plan for Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents by Phillip Schlechty
Why Johnny Can’t Read: And What You Can Do About It, by Rudolph Flesch
Why Johnny Still Can’t Read: A New Look at the Scandal of Our Schools, by Rudolph Flesch
Georgia Department of Education – Curriculum and Instruction – Accountability
David Reynolds (00:13):
Hello listeners. Thanks for joining me today. Welcome to another installment of readings from the book Lead Learn Change. As a reminder, 100% of the profits from the sale of the book are earmarked for the Allene Magill Memorial Scholarship Fund. A link for the book is available in the show notes or you can simply search for the title in the Amazon bookstore. Today we're reading pages 42 through 55, which includes a car story from the late 1970s, a focus on customers and the book's first page break, a section that sometimes follows a story or other commentary and offers glimpses into how PAGE the Professional Association of Georgia Educators supports the principals espoused in the preceding pages. Let's get started. Which gear? It was a 1969 Mercury Grand Marquis. It must have been 30 feet long. Massive, four door, hidden headlamps, and 320 horsepower. Of course, I would never experience anywhere near those 320 in that car.
David Reynolds (01:25):
Our only car for a family of six and only four who were old enough to drive was driven solely by my parents. My dad worked the late shift in his two “off days” were midweek, so the car was seldom at home in the evenings and never on Friday or Saturday night. Plus, our family income did not accommodate the insurance premium increase for two teenage drivers. Me driving that car? Wasn't going to happen. The average speed when I was behind the wheel was about two miles per hour. Seriously. The total of my driving practice at home consisted of parallel parking on some empty expanse of asphalt outside an unoccupied building in town. That was about 90% of my time of the driver's seat. The fastest I ever got to drive that car was about 40 miles per hour on the way back from my driver's test. Then I never drove it again, ever the car was a behemoth, or at least it seemed so. Before sliding in behind the wheel of the 69 Mercury I had never driven any car at all.
David Reynolds (02:31):
I was a bit intimidated by the sheer size of this automobile, one my brother and I rightfully called a land barge. I looked up the specs by the way, and discovered that the Marquis was not 30 feet long. It was just under 19 feet. Still, quite long, no matter how you look at it. And it weighed just over four thousand pounds. It was huge. Thankfully, Vern Creek High School offered driver's education. Good ol’ driver's ed.
Eventually I learned to drive and pass the class and the “live” (in the car) driving test. Enough of what I picked up during that one semester, stuck for a few years until I had access to my own vehicle. One day in driver's ed, slowly pressing the gas pedal, climbing out of a clockwise curve of a cloverleaf intersection, I readied myself to merge into a multi-lane highway.
David Reynolds (03:25):
Two of my peers were in the backseat and our teacher, Mr. Houchens, filled the front passenger spot. One of my eyes was glued to the road where I was destined to blend in and the other on the golf ball encased in its little dome on the top of the dash, there to remind us to drive smoothly so that the ball did not fall off of its tiny perch. Then out of nowhere, a car horn blared. I was startled. What was I doing wrong? Was I getting ready to hit something? I hastily glanced into all of the mirrors I could find and I saw nothing. Not a single vehicle was in sight. Anywhere. Gripping the wheel more tightly, I continued to drive toward the end of the clover leaf, the horn blaring nonstop. When I ended the turn and pulled onto the stretch of road for the return trip to the school, the horn stopped as suddenly as it had begun.
David Reynolds (04:17):
As it turned out, this car had a strip of rubber inside the steering wheel, which, when pressed, or when firmly squeezed, activated the horn. I had been honking at myself the entire time! Humiliation! Arriving at the school, I put the car in park and that embarrassing moment was behind me. I did not want to repeat that scenario. And I didn't. I learned from it. I moved forward. I'm a better driver now than I was then. The improvement didn't happen overnight, yet. Each bit of progress did occur in a moment. One moment I had no idea where that horn was coming from. Then in the next, I understood perfectly what was going on. In that instant, I learned something.
David Reynolds (05:04):
Other driver's ed lessons came and went and I remember none of them. What I can say with certainty, though, is that the overwhelming majority of the time I drove, the car's transmission was in Drive. Not Park. Not Neutral, and seldom Reverse. Changing gears was done via a column shifter. It was easy to see-and feel-what gear you were in. The R for Reverse and the D for drive were right in front of you
on the steering column. Each time I got in the driver's seat, a decision was made. Should I go forward or backward? Then, check my surroundings, foot on the brake, move the shifter, check my surroundings again, accelerate appropriately, and steer. Do that even in a high-tech car today, and you're on your way in one direction or the other. Daunting as a new driver. Second nature now. Such is life, we ought to occasionally shift some aspects of our lives to Neutral or Park, at least for a moment.
David Reynolds (06:06):
What about now? What do your current surroundings tell you? How are you assessing the situation you are in? Are you clear about your destination? Who needs to accompany you? How will you know that you have arrived? Have you thought about where you might be headed after that? What is the first step you should take to make progress? What's going on in your school, company, or organization? What, if anything, has recently changed? Is there something potentially problematic that seems, at first, to be caused by others, or could you be inadvertently creating some confusion, as I was, when I was the one pressing the car horn? How well do you know your students, your patients, your clients or your colleagues? Are you all on the same page regarding your destination? Is there a shared direction inside your department or division? Do your students really understand what's expected of them?
David Reynolds (07:01):
Do they know why? What about resources? Whose help should you enlist to accomplish your mutual aims? Do you have the capacity to do what needs to be done? Does your team, your school, your enterprise? What is a fair way to gauge the success of your collective efforts? What is the evidence that will indicate that a target has been reached, that the students understand, that the patient is improving or that client trust has been enhanced? What about grading practices? Could changes be put in place that incentivize effort and eliminate adverse consequences for failing to meet a standard at an arbitrary moment in time? Initial appearances-first impressions-may not be accurate. All learners do not bring the same set of experiences to the table. Different perspectives may not be wrong, they may merely be different. Most people want to make progress, they want to succeed, they want to make things better.
David Reynolds (07:57):
Sometimes, though-maybe often-we are unaware of what “the others” are dealing with at the moment. Is that student taking care of his siblings each night? Is this student working nearly full-time to help support her family? Is another avoiding negative influences in the neighborhood so they can be the first in their family to go to college? These young people, your students. do not want to go backward. Nor do your colleagues or customers. They do not want to fail. It is our job to move forward and help others do the same. Collective success is better than the alternative. What's holding you back? Get out of Park. Move into Drive. You can use this moment to drive forward. One moment your foot is on the brake and the next moment it's not. You have agency. You choose. Which gear? Who's on first? The question is better phrased, Who should be first?
David Reynolds (09:03):
The short answer? Your customer. Those you serve. Without customers, a for-profit enterprise does not exist. Without adherents to the faith a place of worship cannot take shape. Without patients, there is no medical practice. Without voters, there is no duly elected candidate. And without teachers and students, there is no school. Even students can be viewed as customers. They are the customers of the experiences designed for them. Their currency is their time, attention, and commitment. If the work is worth their time and their attention, then they'll “buy it,” they'll stick with it. Mere attendance is one thing. Doing enough work to earn a good grade-or avoid a bad one-is another issue. Really enjoying the work, seeing its value, voluntarily committing to it-that's an even higher level of response to school. It's an intentional choice, “paying attention.”
David Reynolds (10:15):
Footnote - These attributes of student response to the work provided for them at school are embedded in the concept of engagement. Asking students to “pay attention” is familiar to virtually all of us. For
example, the October 2017 issue of Phi Delta Kappan magazine has only three words describing its cover art: PLEASE PAY ATTENTION! The lead story's premise is connected specifically to digital distraction, but that article and its two partner pieces address multiple aspects of this concern, with over a dozen pages (citing more than 50 references) devoted to the topic. Paying attention is a timeless concept that presents new challenges as technological shifts influence learning and enter classrooms. Regardless of the source of the distraction, the fact remains that students who value a learning experience will willingly “pay” with their attention. If the exercise is not worth the trade-off, attention is not “paid.” Note: PAGE acknowledges and promotes the late Dr. Philip C. Schlechty’s thinking on this subject. For a comprehensive overview of Phil's views on this topic, please read: Schlechty, Philip C. Working on the, Work: An Action Plan for Teachers Principals, and Superintendents, Josie-Bass 2002.
David Reynolds (11:29):
Back to Text. To reiterate, students are customers (but not as stereotypical consumers or clients) as they are the intended users and potential beneficiaries of the work designed for them. As educators, it is our responsibility to design learning experiences that are meaningful-that is, serve student learning, not merely cover a content standard or curriculum strand. PAGE intersects with many customer groups, of course-its own employees, for example, plus external partners such as sister agencies and the occasional vendor. Yet, teachers remain PAGE’s most important customers. Teachers likewise selflessly serve not only their students but also other people: colleagues, students’ families, and a number of community groups. The bottom line however, is students-students for whom there are many choices for their schooling. Footnote. Without students, no school structure would be in place. And without PAGE, the face of public education in Georgia would not be what it is today, because PAGE is making a big impact in this arena.
David Reynolds (12:42):
Footnote. Text for choices for schooling. Some of the following alternatives to traditional public schools can be splintered into even narrower types of formal educational arrangements. Regardless of the degree of specificity one wishes to include in the list, there is no argument that more than a few school choices are available for parents and students today. Options include private schools, (secular or religious), magnet schools, for-profit charter schools, homeschooling, online academies, boarding schools, military schools, and others. Back to text. PAGE is a staunch supporter of public education and dismisses the notion that public schools are flailing and failing. Make no mistake, PAGE's perspective, stance, and actions affirm its commitment to shedding light on this topic, this mistaken notion that public schools are abysmal failures.
David Reynolds (13:50):
Footnote. Why Johnny Can’t Read: And What You can Do About It, published in 1955, is possibly writer Rudolph Flesch’s most recognizable title. He authored other titles as well, including Why Johnny Still Can't Read: A New Look at the Scandal of Our Schools, published in 1981. Notably, Flesch's work led to the development of the Flesh-Kincade readability test (or scale). Back to text. Instead of asking why Johnny can't read, the question is more aptly phrased as a statement why Johnny can read with the answer being inextricably linked to public schools and the teachers who serve in them. Footnote, an online search indicated that many sources cite 90% as the segment of the school-age student population that attends public schools in the United States. For readers who want to explore the public schools versus other options issue, the effort required to conduct an internet search is minimal. One can easily locate scientific as subjective expositions on the subject. A query of a popular search engine using the phrase public versus private education, yielded 2,710,000,000 million results. More than 2 billion.
David Reynolds (15:07):
Happy reading. If you do head down this path of discovery, be mindful of the metric used to determine “better.” If that component is flawed, then all arguments connected to the results are suspect. You need to decide what makes an educational experience valuable before you accept any proponent’s justification for its alleged superiority. Back to text. A brief synopsis of PAGE's view of the wrong-headed mantra that schools are failing begins with the unfortunate misappropriation of that very terminology- failing. Take your pick of more apt descriptors: striving, improving, overcoming. Georgia's legislature, to its credit, recently embraced the somewhat more fitting “struggling” moniker instead of the misleading “failing” label. What is more accurately indicative of failing are the policies and practices that reward and punish schools-or direct divert valuable resources-based on the less-than-suitable metrics such as those used to “grade” schools. According to Georgia's department of education website, the College
and Career Ready Performance Index, is the tool of choice that describes how well a school is preparing its students for the next educational level. Footnote text is a link to the Georgia Department of Education's page highlighting CCRPI. back to text.
David Reynolds (16:50):
How well a school is preparing its students for the next educational level. That is potentially valuable information. The problem lies in a calculation methods and seeming contradictions embedded in the arithmetic involved. The overwhelming majority of the scored components that combine to comprise the overall CCRPI score (a number on a scale of zero to 100 points) are lifted directly from standardized test scores. To be fair, there are other aspects of a school's work and student performance embedded in the CCRPI and some of them can add meaning and context to how a student's experience at school is viewed. Footnote text. Fine arts, career pathway participation, work-based learning, attendance, and graduation are part of CCRPI as well. Back to text. Nevertheless, the bulk of a school's score is married to test scores in a way that does not and cannot capture the essence of the support for learning that educators invest in their students every day.
David Reynolds (17:56):
Adherents to the use of simple metrics, footnote, (simple and their descriptive depth. Regardless of the complexity of their calculation methods) footnote, purport that doing so is a fair and accurate means of comparing school quality. Footnote text, Nancy Lubin and Alyssa Ruderman share some insightful distinctions between metrics and data in their book, The XYZ Factor: The DoSomething.org Guide to Creating a Culture of Impact. (Ben Bella Books Incorporated 2015). Read pages 70 -75 for some very helpful explanations that may shift how you view the assessment of organizational goals. The other footnote text for calculation methods for CCRPI points to a website on the Georgia Department of Education's page. Back to text. Adherence to the use of simple metrics purport that doing so is a fair and accurate means of comparing school quality. That argument can be destroyed in a matter of seconds when community context is considered: poverty, population growth, infrastructure, tax base, adult education attainment level, school staffing patterns, job opportunities, et cetera.
David Reynolds (19:17):
But, for illustrative purposes, let's agree to temporarily operate on the erroneous assumption that two schools, footnote, Livingston High School (LHS) and Theo Chase High School (TCHS) are demographically equivalent and should therefore be evaluated in an identical manner. Multiple examples of the contradiction mentioned above can be easily found via a quick perusal of CCRPT data. Footnote text. These are actual scores adjusted no more than one 10th of one point from two Georgia high schools to keep them anonymous but not changing their real ratings, but the school names are fictional. Back to text. For example, LHS’s score is 79.5, which CCRPI equates with a grade of “C” (70.0 - 79.9) and TCHS’s CCPRI score is 82.8, earning a “B” label. Now for the fun part. The online “Performance Snapshot” bullet points for one of the schools says that just under 60% of its graduates are college ready.
David Reynolds (20:37):
The other schools figure is right at 70%. What might surprise you is that the “C” school is the one boasting 70% college ready, while less than 60% of students at the “B” school are college ready. Digging further, we learned that the college ready factor is based on-are you anticipating it yet?- test scores. If one school had scored 79.5 and the other scored 70.1, despite nearly tripling the overall CCRPI point gap from 3.3 to 9.4, both would nonetheless be identified as “C” schools. What is the real difference between the two schools? How can anyone know, based on these figures. What is the meaningful distinction in a student's learning experience in a school with a score of 89.8 and one with a score of 90.3? If you use a money parallel, where a CCRPI score of 100 equals one dollar, one of our example schools is half of a cent away from “earning” status as a “B” school and ,looking at both schools, there would be less than four pennies of difference between them.
David Reynolds (21:55):
Even if readiness metrics are revised and the corresponding calculation process is made better, that change will not negate the fact that thousands of schools and tens of thousands of educators have operated inside similar nonsensical systems for years and have been required to divert their talents and skills away from teaching children to chasing the brass ring of faux quality. How does that improve a school? How does that help students? Anyone? There is a better way, a framework of true accountability. Visit www.braved.com/ to learn more. And listen to an interview with John Tanner on the Lead. Learn. Change. podcast. The episode is titled John Tanner. Accountability is about the future. Because PAGE assists educators in their endeavor to offer students legitimate support, we now return to the question, “Who is most important anyway?” In a school, the student is most important. Since businesses cannot exist without customers-or schools without students-the work undertaken by any organization can only survive and thrive if it seeks to meet the needs of those it serves.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
PAGE focuses on what works best for learners, whether they be adults or youth, and its approach is practicable, regardless of the school evaluation process du jour. Such measures will come and go and PAGE knows that shifting one's work and focus to align with the “standards flavor of the month,” or other issues destined to be short-lived is not a solid way to conduct business. Some may rightfully argue that the notion of a continuously changing standard is oxymoronic on its face. Can a meaningful standard exist in a regular state of measurement flux? Instead of pursuing the latest and greatest program that falsely promises to help schools provide students with a better education, read higher test scores, PAGE supports endeavors that help develop and strengthen quality schools led by dedicated professionals who make a great impact on students day after day, year after year. We all need to be aware of the challenges inherent in such an undertaking, and we should agree on the importance of minimizing or eliminating any structures or systems that hinder students learning and teachers teaching. Great educators do care about their students and truly want what is best for each of them. Anything we can do to reinforce those efforts is worth consideration.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Knowing one’s customers or students, learning how to meet them where they are, helping them move forward and engaging in mutually beneficial success-based efforts is noble work. This is workthat leaves an indelible mark on individual lives and on society overall. This is the work that makes a difference. This is teachers’ work. This is PAGE's work. That's all for today. Thanks for listening. You can email me at Lead Learn change@icloud.com. Have a great day. Until next time, go lead, go learn. Go make a change. Go.