Principal's Message - October Edition 2009-2010

REORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL

Last year the Organizational Cabinet identified that the school still had communication gaps in existence. It was clear to the members of this group that people within the school were not knowledgeable of what was taking place in Cabinet. In addition, there was no consistent forum for information sharing. However, with hard work and innovation, we restructured the school and created a “town hall” concept to ensure every staff member in our school would have an opportunity to be engaged with the activities taking place and be knowledgeable of ongoing developments.

Our goal of transparency would involve an overlap of members in cabinet, grade teams, town halls, various committees such as the Discipline Committee and UFT Consultation, and teams such as the Child Study Team and Counseling Team. Here is the listing of members and who they represent:

ORGANIZATIONAL CABINET INSTRUCTIONAL CABINET
Mr. Ciano UFT Mr. Ciano UFT
Mr. Allen 8th Grade Ms. Mayers ELA
Dr. Schultz 7th Grade/SLT Mr. Unger Math
Mr. Mezan 6th/Disc. Com. Ms. Levene Science
Matt Hartung/Danielle Wolf City Year Matt Hartung/Danielle Wolf City Year
Mercedes Jennings HCE Mercedes Jennings HCE
Lyel Ressner EHTP Lyel Ressner EHTP
Ms. Emmanuel HS Apps/8th Ms. DeStaffan Electives/ESL
Ms. Lee SW Interns/7th Ms. McKinley Testing/SS
Ms. Baitz-Unger Recruitment/6th Mr. Deatherage Data/Literacy
Ms. Terri Stud. Int/SPINS4Mr. Young New Teachers
Jacob Scott Stud Mgmt Team Ms. Stephens Internship
Ms. Word Parent Inv. Dr. Phelps AIS
Ms. Selina Office Staff Ms. Schenk IEP/Spec. Ed.
Mr. Seeram Attendance
Ms. McKinley Child Study

All decisions affecting the entire school are to be conducted in both the instructional and organizational cabinet. The instructional cabinet concentrates on raising the academic level of our students, exploring ways to enhance instruction in the classroom, developing solid curriculum, aligning our instructional practices departmentally and within our grade teams as well as school-wide, investigating best practices of successful schools to create a clear vision of what needs to be done at our school to raise our academics, and establishing professional learning communities within our departments and grade teams. The organizational cabinet focuses on developing systems to enhance the day-to-day operations of the school. For example, the organizational cabinet is in the process of finalizing the new student admissions process, a new bathroom pass system to reduce the number of requests, and a system to update student phone numbers.

Each member of the cabinet represents a group. Ideally, these people should advocate for their group, maintain focus on the school goals, monitor the workload of their department or team, monitor how meeting time is being spent, and make sure everyone’s voice is being heard. Issues that arise within a grade team or department that do not affect the rest of the school should be resolved within these entities. For instance, if a teacher wants a student moved to another class, this should be put on the agenda for a grade team meeting or a town hall. Another example is hosting an event for students. If the event only affects one grade, then time should be set aside in a town hall meeting to plan it out. For departments, if the members wanted to dedicate time toward lesson planning, then that should be the decision of that subject area. The only non-negotiable for all these groups is that they cannot spend the time separate from each other. The periods are not to be converted into a preparatory period. This was negotiated with the UFT Consultation. If you feel your time during these meetings is not being spent wisely, then voice your concern to your grade team leader or department liaison. If you still feel as though you are not being heard, then share it with an administrator.

IS THERE A WRONG WAY TO SHARE A CONCERN?
Sharing concerns is very important in making sure your work environment is a satisfactory and enjoyable one. I have visited some grade team meetings and have spoken to many of you about the atmosphere of your grade teams and town halls. The feedback and observations have made it apparent that people are yearning for more to be done. To shift into a more productive culture, we must make sure that all concerns are attached to a potential solution. If concerns are going to be raised in a meeting, then a method of addressing each issue is imperative. If not, we are crushing any momentum that may exist in a group. Picture your town hall or department as a boat floating on a lake with all your members inside. Concerns are like buckets of water in this analogy. When one person brings a concern to the discussion, that concern becomes one for every member on the boat (if it doesn’t become a concern for everyone then it might not be an issue after all). This is as if everyone reached into the water with their bucket, filled it with water and poured it into the boat. Eventually, the boat is going to sink with the amount of water being emptied on board. On the other hand, solutions are like a water pump. For each solution, you pump a bucket of water out of the boat. The more solutions that are established and executed, the more water is removed. So how do you manage to avoid your boat from sinking? You make sure every person who raises a concern comes with a solution so the water never reaches the bottom of the boat. A solution to a concern prevents others from reaching their buckets into the water and pouring it on board.

IT SOUNDS SO EASY…BUT IS IT?

In the ideal world, every solution brought to the table will be the one followed to address the concern. We would be lying to ourselves if we thought that was a reality. The reality is solutions may have to be adjusted or even replaced with another plan. The difference in the discussion is when there is a frame of fixing a problem, it shifts the mentality of the group to a problem solving one rather than one of helplessness. This is when you feel that nothing can be done and that you are stuck with the circumstances. If there is anything that kills morale, it’s feeling like you are stuck. The reorganization is set up for everyone to have a voice. We as a community must take advantage of these opportunities. Unfortunately, the only way it can shift to its full potential is if we convert our “concern sharing” into a “concern and solution sharing” practice. This change requires us to do three things out of our comfort zone: (1) to call on your team members to be a part of your solution, (2) to trust that the members of your team will contribute to your solution and that the contributions are equally distributed based on the strengths of your members, and (3) to add value: if you are going to add on to someone else’s solution, then this means you extend a helping hand, not solely expand the responsibilities of the person with the initial solution.

When we fight with a spouse, colleague, or friend, resolving our differences is a difficult process. Sometimes I try to avoid the person because of how challenging those talks can be. As we become more familiar with how beneficial these conversations are, we move into them much faster. My wife and I made a rule that we cannot walk out of the room until we resolve our problem(s). There have been many times when I wanted to ignore that rule only to appreciate it after we talked through it. The more likely we are to have those difficult conversations is a sign that we are able to move forward. We know the value of putting our personalities aside to reach a consensus on moving forward. We often tell our students to talk to another student when they have an issue. We are teaching them how to talk about their feelings. Engaging in the conversation is to share what is on your mind and then agreeing to a way of moving forward. For instance, successful mediation focuses on how to move forward rather than what happened and who was right or wrong. Shifting the “concern sharing” to “concern and solution sharing” forces us to confront the issues that exist in a productive way. Instead of remaining with our problems in our own rooms, it makes us deal with them as a group.

The easy part about facing a problem is identifying what is wrong. The hard part is to find a way to address the concern. These are difficult conversations to have. It taps into our passion, our commitment, and our vision of how to best support our students. It confronts what we know, what we have become familiar with, and asks us to step outside of what is comfortable. Talk about anxiety. As we learn to trust each other more and more, this will become easier because we will learn to respect our differences. Right now, our differences are unknown and we only associate these to the interactions we conjure up through our limited time together. One of my goals is to help us understand our differences and develop a frame of meetings to become more productive.

I have stepped outside my comfort zone by handing over the power of decision making to all of you whether through the cabinets, departments, teams, or committees. I will only step in when I question whether or not the decision making is not being framed around our school goals or the driving force is not our students. By empowering you, I have learned a bit about the process. For one, administration must teach all groups and teams to trust each other and to trust the process. The more trust that exists within a group, the more productive the team will be. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of yourself and your colleagues will allow for a more thorough decision making system. This also has to be modeled in the administrative team and cabinets. Second, I have learned that the process needs time to develop. Change is not going to happen overnight. I am learning so much about patience. Finally, I have come to realize the forum of meetings we used last year has to change. After examining the theory of action within a meeting, it has become clear that talking about an issue is not enough. We must provide those opportunities but attach those conversations with a plan of action, time lines, and accountability. Not top down accountability but mutual accountability of consensus on responsibilities, contributions, and time frames. This will require our staff as a whole to step outside of their comfort zone. Again, this will take time.

FINAL WORDS

In the end, we are here to provide the best education we can for our students. We have an incredibly dedicated staff who works hard day in and day out. It’s time to take advantage of our strengths even more and continue toward our goal of working smarter rather than harder. I appreciate every one of you. I am excited about this month because people are becoming more vocal in a productive way. People are seeing how it can happen. It is only a matter of time until we become comfortable with it and run with it. I’m counting the days. Just remind me to be patient.

STAFF BIRTHDAYS

Jim Unger November 14th
Emily Hanlen November 17th
Kristie Willis November 19th

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“What a teacher feels and thinks about the children in front of her makes all the difference in how much those children learn.”—Lorraine Monroe

WHAT IS THE RESEARCH TELLING US?

Taken from the website http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/mar03/decker.shtml
Creating a Framework to Make Data-Driven Instruction a Reality
by Gregory Scott Decker, Ed.D., Principal Lead Mine Elementary School Raleigh, North Carolina

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How can we help students increase learning, meet state and national content standards, and achieve success on rigorous performance assessments? To improve student achievement in the classroom and on high-stakes tests, we need to ask the right questions and gather the right data. At Lead Mine Elementary School, we receive data from our state test, the North Carolina End-of-Grade Test, after students leave for the summer. However, to increase student achievement, we need current and accurate data on an ongoing basis.

Over the last 4 years, Lead Mine Elementary has built an education framework that has resulted in academic growth for students and helped make data-driven instruction a reality. By using this framework, we have developed a way to secure the data we need to make better instructional decisions and improve student achievement on a continuing basis throughout the school year. "The Lead Mine Elementary School Curriculum Design" framework created by our administrators, teachers, curriculum specialists, literacy specialists, special education resource teachers, tutors, and media specialist has four major components:
• Curriculum alignment: What are we going to teach?
• Curriculum mapping: When are we going to teach it?
• Curriculum benchmarking: Did students learn it?
• Differentiation: What teaching methods would be best for each student?

Using this Curriculum Design framework, our teachers, parents, and students can see student expectations for each grade level. We can track student progress, identify needs, and provide focused instruction and interventions. Ultimately, we can improve student achievement throughout the school year and on the End-of-Grade Test.

Lead Mine Elementary is located in Wake County, an urban area of Raleigh, North Carolina. Our school currently enrolls 600 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Our student population is 50 percent Caucasian, 28 percent African-American, 14 percent Hispanic, and 8 percent other minorities. We are an English as a Second Language (ESL) school and more than 40 percent of our children receive free and reduced lunches. Our school is part of the Wake County Public School System, the second-largest school system in the state.

Curriculum Alignment

The first component of our Curriculum Design framework, curriculum alignment, shows what we will teach in each subject area and at each grade level.
How did we begin? First, our teachers assembled their curriculum for each grade level and aligned it with the state's Standard Course of Study. Then they organized the components of the curriculum visually. On the horizontal axis, we listed each grade level from kindergarten through fifth. On the vertical axis, we listed each academic subject area. Next, the teachers identified which skills students should be able to demonstrate in each subject area and grade level.

Curriculum Mapping

Building on the curriculum alignment component, which shows what we will teach, the curriculum map illustrates when we will teach it. It displays the skills in the order they will be taught in each grade level. To determine the mapping sequence, we evaluated research across a number of areas, including best-practice teaching methodology, cognitive-learning theories, and brain research.

As we laid out the objectives across the curriculum map—skill by skill, grading quarter by grading quarter, and grade level by grade level—a bigger picture began to emerge. We saw that we needed to strengthen connections among and between grade levels and subject areas. Taking advantage of this new perspective, we decided to thematically align instruction across the subject areas in each grade level, when appropriate. Not only did this approach make better sense to us, but we knew it would make better sense to our students and parents.

We extended these connections to our media center as well. Every child in our school sees our media specialist once a week. The media specialist's role is to enrich the curriculum and learning process through the use of technology. Toward this end, she regularly meets with the grade level planning teams as they design their lessons according to the curriculum map. By participating in these meetings, she can align her instruction with what the children are doing in class and help them identify and use appropriate resources, including the Internet.

Curriculum Benchmarking

Of course, just because our teachers and media specialist have a plan for what to teach and when to teach it, that does not automatically mean that students will learn it. With this in mind, we developed quarterly assessments and minimum standards of achievement, known as curriculum benchmarking, for each grade level. This is a simple process of quality control—identifying children who have mastered skills and those who have yet to master them.

These multiple assessments (which are correlated with the curriculum alignment and curriculum maps) allow us to collect objective data throughout the school year. This helps us determine where children are, and where they need to be, to successfully pass local academic standards and the End-of-Grade Test administered in grades three, four, and five. This also enables us to provide timely interventions in the classroom or enroll students in special programs to assist them wherever they need it.

Students who attend our school from kindergarten through fifth grade will be benchmarked against minimum grade level expectations 24 times over this 6-year period using multiple assessments. The wealth of data we accumulate allows us to look at each child longitudinally, determine how to best help each reach their full potential, and determine what interventions are most successful.

Differentiation

As we review the assessment data, we try to determine what teaching methods would be best for each learner. We have found the integration of technology to be a valuable tool in helping teachers differentiate instruction for students based on their individual needs.

When we set out to develop our Curriculum Design framework, we looked for a curriculum solution that would support our philosophy and provide ongoing embedded assessment and detailed student performance data. At the same time, we wanted a solution that would provide differentiation of curriculum, allow for curriculum compacting at the academically gifted spectrum, and provide direct interventions to students who needed to focus on a specific curriculum concept they have failed to master. We found that Pearson Education Technologies' SuccessMaker comprehensive courseware system provides the best system to align with what we were doing and provides real-time data correlated to our End-of-Grade Test.

Each student uses the curriculum courseware for 30 minutes a day, three times a week to strengthen their skills in mathematics, reading, writing, and language arts. As students work on the courseware in the classroom and computer labs, we see that every computer monitor is different because every child is working at his or her own pace and skill level. This is true differentiation.

The courseware's management system provides teachers and parents with up-to-date assessments of each student's skills. The system's assessment tools and on-demand reports allow teachers to monitor each student's performance and growth, pinpoint difficulties, and provide interventions as needed. For example, if a group of students has difficulty in a specific area, the teacher or media specialist can provide additional instruction or resources to cover that area in greater detail. Alternatively, if the reports show that everyone in the class has mastered a concept, the teacher or media specialist can move more rapidly through the lesson, which helps both to make more effective use of their time with students.

Forecasting Achievement

Data from the curriculum courseware also plays an important role in our curriculum benchmarking. In fall 2000, we wanted to determine target courseware levels for achievement on the End-of-Grade Test and incorporate these into our benchmarks. We provided Pearson Education Technologies with data from our 2000 End-of-Grade Test and student performance data in the courseware.

The company then performed an "OnTarget Analysis," which is part of their new High Stakes Management suite of tools and services. It analyzed students' performance data and End-of-Grade Test scores to establish the statistical relationship between courseware levels at the time of the test and test score data. Using this information, the company established target courseware levels for specific test achievement, then recommended some adjustments to our benchmarks to help ensure smooth transitions from grade to grade.

The result is that we can now forecast the time a student needs to reach a specific SuccessMaker level and see the relationship of that level to achievement on the End-of-Grade Test. We incorporate this data as a part of our quarterly benchmarks and use it day to day as well. A key benefit is that the courseware provides a continuous view of student progress toward the target level and corresponding goal, aiding the teacher in providing timely and appropriate instructional focus and intervention throughout the year.

Parent Involvement

In addition to using assessment data to help make instructional decisions for each child, teachers share the data with parents to show them how their child is performing and to address areas of difficulty. Teachers appreciate having objective data available at parent-teacher conferences. It diminishes human error and biases, placing the focus on addressing the needs of the child rather than finding blame.
Parents play a critical role in our efforts to improve student achievement. As such, we strive to provide them with as much information as we can about their child. We put our curriculum alignment and curriculum benchmarks in a pamphlet and hand it out the first day of school when parents attend open house. We tell the parents, "This is the contract we are making with you and the academic expectations we are seeking." This helps parents see our vision for the school year and take a more active role in helping their children develop the skills they need during the year.

For example, in the first quarter of grade four, we may say that the minimum expectation is for each child to know eight of the 16 mid-year objectives. In our open house at the first of the year, we provide parents with all 16 objectives. At the end of the quarter, we inform parents how many of the 16 objectives their child knows and whether or not their child is working at grade level. This gives the parents direct, objective feedback based on the alignment, the map, and the End-of-Grade testing. We communicate with parents every grading period and lay out the objectives again for each grade level in an insert that goes into the quarterly report cards of children who have not met the minimum expectations.

This Curriculum Design allows us to become completely transparent, giving parents and the community a clear view into our curriculum and assessments. This approach has greatly improved our relationships with our stakeholders and has increased student academic success as well.

Developing a Record of Success

We continually work to update and fine-tune our Curriculum Design. Each spring, we review and edit the framework to reflect changes in our curriculum, standards, and assessments. When children return in the fall, we have a renewed framework to better meet their needs. As a result of our efforts, our decision-making ability has become more data-driven and students are improving.

In 2000-01, 88 percent of our students passed the North Carolina End-of-Grade Test. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction named Lead Mine Elementary a School of Distinction with Exemplary Growth, the highest award given to schools in the state, in recognition of our academic achievement and academic growth for all children. In 2001-02, 91.2 percent of our students passed the End-of-Grade Test, and we were named a School of Excellence with Exemplary Growth for a second time.
The fact that we are a school of "Exemplary Growth" indicates the potential of this Curriculum Design and its ability to increase student growth and performance. Regardless of academic level, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status, when a child enters Lead Mine Elementary, he or she will grow academically because we effectively hold ourselves accountable for every child. In fact, our student performance and growth rates continue to rise on the End-of-Grade Test, even though our poverty rates have increased annually. This is a phenomenon that is not occurring in many schools.

In a changing education system that demands accountability and strives to provide more information to parents about their child's achievement, we are excited about what Lead Mine Elementary has been able to accomplish. Many factors have been central to the success of our program: hard work, dedicated teachers and staff, an outstanding curriculum design, use of technology, constant monitoring, data-driven decision making, and people open to new ideas. Most importantly, we always put the child first. We know how to ask the right questions to determine a child's needs and what interventions will ensure the child's success. We firmly believe it is our responsibility to provide each child with whatever support is needed. We strive to meet the needs of all the children attending Lead Mine Elementary.
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Communications to the author may be addressed to Dr. Gregory Scott Decker, Principal, Lead Mine Elementary School, 8301 Old Lead Mine Road, Raleigh, NC 27615, 919/870-4120; e-mail: gdecker@wcpss.net.