Shift Our Thinking - Now!

With the testing season just around the corner, the “race” to equip students with the skills as well as knowledge to be successful on end of grade or end of course tests will go into overdrive.  The last minute "cram" or "review" for those students on grade level will hopefully "do no harm".  For students whom need a full year of instruction will, in all likelihood, not fair so well!

Teetering on the obvious, students entering a grade level behind their peers or who may have barely passed their previous years end of grade assessments are at the greatest risk.  Students significantly behind are already significantly disadvantaged and unless we have the courage to radically shift our approach to address failed learning as well as the failure to learn, those students will not advance towards standard.  Please note; this is not about closing the performance distance with their peers.  Rather, this is all about each learner meeting or exceeding standards.

The goal, our goal is to have each student, each learner "summit".  Irrespective of how long it takes, the route they take, or order in which they arrive, the goal must be mastery of the standards.

While speaking at SXSWedu two weeks ago, I make the comment that one of our greatest attributes, as a nation is also one of our greatest liabilities - competition.  Competition is part of the American DNA.  We are competitive.  We want to win.  We want to be first.  As the great sports prophet Ricky Bobby stated, "If you ain't first, you're last!"

Competition has served our nation well.  Yet, it has also been a disservice with respect to education.  We know that competition results in "winners" and "losers".  However, this mindset works against the very goal we desire to achieve in education.  Simply put, we can't afford losers as a result of our education system.  We must have winners - all winners.

Lest you think this is idealistic socialistic babble, please consider that a fundamental tenet of education is to raise individually and collectively the quality of life, the quality of community, and the quality of our nation.  We all benefit from an educated society - hence the commitment to providing a free and public education for all.  

Education has been used to "sort and select" individuals or groups of people with respect to "station in life".  I get this.  I've benefited from education.  My children have benefited as well.  However, I do not believe that I have benefited at the expense of others.  My point, our point!  An educate society benefits each of us not at the expense of any of us.

We continue to confuse the issue and therefore are woefully ineffective in addressing the root causes of failure.  We continue to make way too many erroneous assumptions about the causes of failed learning and the failure to learn.  Consequently, we have and will continue to treat the symptoms and wonder why students are not progressing towards meeting or exceeding standards.

I am convinced that until we make this shift in our thinking we will not make the critical, necessary, and essential shifts in our behavior as well as practice for each learner to benefit from the promises of an education.

Best of Class: What is it about planning anyway?

Best of Class: What is it about planning anyway?: I have learned that the problem with planning has little to do with making a plan.  In fact, making a plan or "th...

What is it about planning anyway?

I have learned that the problem with planning has little to do with making a plan.  In fact, making a plan or "the" plan is actually both easy and simple to do.  There are critical processes to making a good, actionable plan.  These are well known.  Teetering on the obvious, there is and always will be room for process improvement in making a good plan.  However and I repeat, the biggest problem with planning is seldom the plan itself.

Rather, a plan is only as good as the implementation, monitoring, measuring, and adjusting or correcting processes that are essential to achieving the expected or desired output of the plan.  Wavering on being over critical, much of the failure associated with planning is directly influenced by the lack of awareness, understanding, and application of "systems thinking", "continuous improvement" and "process management" – terms are often thrown about as if “all” know “what” they are, “why” they are, and “how” to use them effectively and efficiently.

The problem – our problem is that the aforementioned three concepts and practices have to a certain degree been ill legitimized by those who “thought” they knew what they were especially to education.  Hmm … how many innovations have gone down this path?  Too many!

Education is for the most part absolutely terrible in how they approach planning as well as executing their plan.  Consider, most schools and school systems utilize a planning practice that literally works against the very outcomes they seek to achieve.  Educators have long practiced a "start and end" mindset.  Arguably, this is not their fault.  The entire American education system was structured around the agrarian calendar to ensure children would be able to assist in the summer months with the "harvest".  As a side note, less that 2% of the American population is actively working in agriculture.  

We all know that learning can only take place late August or early September to June, right?.  Sarcasm aside, this start up and shut down practice has heavily influenced how schools and school systems approach planning - year-to-year.   To suggest that planning must be more comprehensive, vertical as well as horizontal, and continuous is contrarian to most points of view and practice.

Putting the plan and its content aside, as I mentioned, the real problem with planning is not the plan.  Rather, it is the implementation, monitoring, measuring, and adjusting or correcting processes that are lacking.  Akin to the classroom teacher developing a lesson plan, it is the execution of the plan that matters.  The well-crafted lesson plan will have tangible, measurable learning outcomes.  The plan will articulate not only what the teacher will do (input) but also what the learner will learn (output).  If you prefer, substitute "cause" for input and "effect" for output for a better alignment to the teaching and learning process.  The point, we expect teachers to thoughtfully create meaningful teaching and learning plans every day.  We measure, judge if you will, their ability to implement or execute their plan daily.  Yet, most schools and school systems leaders don't employ the very concepts or constructs they expect from those they depend upon to improve student performance to their organizational growth and performance. 

Why?  A simple answer is we don't know "systems thinking", "continuous improvement" or "process management" well enough to drive the deep, enduring habits or practices to sustain individual as well as organizational performance improvement.  

In the weeks ahead, I will unpack each just enough to hopefully create a sense of curiosity as to how we can authentically achieve what our best hopes are for each learner in our schools.