Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals - Blame

Blame the teacher. When things can't be blamed on anyone in particular, make the "fault" known to all as a call for improvement. When things go right, credit the school and your leadership.

For example, poor scores on math tests are obviously something the math department needs to focus on improving. Require that they write action plans, goals, and new departmental missions statements. Have them come up with ways to improve their teaching to raise students' scores (Put these into files as evaluation comments: Teacher's homework policy is ineffective.) Ask "What can you do to make learning more fun for the students" or other questions that move the school in exactly the wrong direction.

Of course, good scores the next year are proof that the new school environment is beneficial and that the Principal is doing a good job. Announce to the papers, parents, and media that "We are back on Track."

Also known as The Sharpshooter's Rule.
"When I miss, it's because the gun sights are wrong or it's a bad load of ammo. When I hit the Bull's-eye, it's because I am a sharpshooter."

Mean but Funny ... is still funny

Overheard:

Some people are like slinkies ...
They don’t really have a purpose,
but they still bring a smile to your face
when you push them down the stairs.

Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals - testing

HIPs don't get assessment right.

They insist that teachers take at least one class per week for "test-taking skills" and test-prep questions. Check to make sure that kids have completed large packets of multiple choice questions from released versions of the test without care for whether they actually pertain to the curriculum in place. Do not let the teachers teach Algebra 1, for instance. "Let's focus on the test!" "We must raise our scores!"

Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals - Numbers

According to Seth Godin, Dunbar's Number isn't just a number, it's the law. This has obvious repercussions when it comes to Highly Ineffective Principals and their faculty. I would claim that true HIPpies can handle only a third of this number.

Dunbar's number is 150.

And he's not compromising, no matter how much you whine about it.

Dunbar postulated that the typical human being can only have 150 friends. One hundred fifty people in the tribe. After that, we just aren't cognitively organized to handle and track new people easily. That's why, without external forces, human tribes tend to split in two after they reach this size. It's why WL Gore limits the size of their offices to 150 (when they grow, they build a whole new building).

Facebook and Twitter and blogs fly in the face of Dunbar's number. They put hundreds or thousands of friendlies in front of us, people we would have lost touch with (why? because of Dunbar!) except that they keep digitally reappearing.

Reunions are a great example of Dunbar's number at work. You might like a dozen people you meet at that reunion, but you can't keep up, because you're full.

Some people online are trying to flout Dunbar's number, to become connected and actual friends with tens of thousands of people at once. And guess what? It doesn't scale. You might be able to stretch to 200 or 400, but no, you can't effectively engage at a tribal level with a thousand people. You get the politician's glassy-eyed gaze or the celebrity's empty stare. And then the nature of the relationship is changed.

I can tell when this happens. I'm guessing you can too.

Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals - focus on trivia

Overemphasize the Mission Statement.

Some people feel a HIP is one who avoids the mission statement at all costs, but I am am not so sure. In general, those who ignore any type of mission statement are not particularly good, but those who spend time and schedule meetings drafting a new one for the school are missing the boat entirely.

Mission Statements tries to justify this wild-goose chase by saying, "A school mission statement can help you decide if what they offer and the way they provide it lines up with your educational goals."

Bull.

"Community School recognizes that each child is an individual; that all children are creative; that all children need to succeed. Therefore, Community School respects the individual needs of children; fosters a caring and creative environment; and emphasizes the social, emotional, physical, intellectual development of each child."

Whatever. Wouldn't you like, just once, to see a mission statement that read, The school's mission: "We will teach our students. We won't waste our time trying to make this simple idea sound more dramatic or all-inclusive, nor will we try to invoke barely understood thoughts of futuristic or intellectually-vague bullshit."

I had to chuckle when I read this one, so "different" and "descriptive".

"Kitty Hawk Elementary School seeks to create a challenging learning environment that encourages high expectations for success through development-appropriate instruction that allows for individual differences and learning styles. Our school promotes a safe, orderly, caring, and supportive environment. Each student's self-esteem is fostered by positive relationships with students and staff. We strive to have our parents, teachers, and community members actively involved on our students' learning."

It an elementary school, for crying out loud. I wonder how many hours they spent coming up with this load of dreck. I can hear it now, vigorous argument over whather it should be "safe, orderly, caring, and supportive" or "caring, safe, supportive and orderly."

Agincourt on St. Crispin’s Day, Oct. 25, 1415

WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!

KING. What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.

God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.

But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have.

O, do not wish one more!

Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.

This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered -
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Also see: Historians Reassess Battle of Agincourt at NYT

Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals - goals

Make all teachers go through the motions of "setting goals." Don't use an Word Document but rather print out lots of copies of the blank form and insist that teachers hand-write their goals (how this makes the process more valuable, no one knows). You must also require that teachers find the specific standards and domains which apply. (Such as "3c: Instructional materials and resources" and "4e: Service to the profession") Then set up meetings to discuss and "sign-off" on those goals, taking up prep-time. of course. Then store them carefully away, to be seen only once again at the end-of-year goals review process.

Don't actually go to any effort to help teachers achieve those goals, or try to understand why writing those goals down is important (h/t: PissedOff teacher) but make sure the paperwork happen.

Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals - delay

#13: At a faculty meeting, allow people limited time to make their point. As soon as one side seems to be dominant, speak for the other and then close the discussion, saying, "We'll revisit this at a later meeting." Make no decisions and don't allow consensus to form.

PURCHASE, N.Y. — PepsiCo is removing the iPhone application that promised to help men "score" with different types of women about a week after it was criticized for stereotyping. "Amp up before you score." The application gave users pickup lines to woo two dozen stereotypes of women, from "the nerd" to "the foreign exchange student" and a scoreboard to keep track of their conquests.

A. They already got the publicity they wanted.
B. Like they care about stereotyping.
C. Sex sells.
D. Schools allow Amp and other beverages like it, but don't allow coffee. They allow Powerade but don't allow soda. They allow kids to drink 1 quart of water but then make them wait to use the bathroom.

Spreading the Joke - Classrooms in the Movies

Huston's list is here, and repeated below.
Classrooms in the Movies ...

1. …never have more students than desks.
2. …have every student in class, every day.
3. …have mostly the same group of kids at the end of the year as they had on the first day of school. If someone moves in or out, it’s a big event.
4. …have some loud or obnoxious students, but only because they want attention. Inside, they’re all decent people who just need someone to reach out and understand them. None of them are consciously choosing to act like jerks or thugs, and all of them are secretly very, very bright, once you get to know them.
5. …never have more than one kid having a serious emotional crisis at a time. Once that issue is resolved, another kid can have a problem.
6. …never have any students who have been mainstreamed into that class due to politically correct special ed policies. They certainly don’t have ten of them.
7. …never actually seem to do much intensive studying, drilling, or practice. All those feel-good group discussions of emotional discovery someone produce students who achieve very well academically.
8. …are always full of students who look well groomed, healthy, and alert, despite involvement with broken homes, poverty, gangs, and substance abuse. No student in a movie looks or acts any differently than, say, your average young Hollywood actor. For some reason.
9. …are always full of curious young adults who, despite being hard-partying hedonists, speak with the kind of vocabularies that, oddly enough, Hollywood screenwriters would have. They all know the difference between Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt. They know their times tables. They can read for more than five minutes without falling asleep.
10. …rarely have students who come to school high. If they do, they’re just good, smart goofballs who do it for a laugh. All ends well.
11. …never have students who refuse to take the medication prescribed by their psychiatrist.
12. …never have students who bounce back and forth between the classroom and juvenile hall.
13. …are staffed by teachers who can magically command attention with a single request, who enjoy instant rapport with their students, and whose off the wall teaching ideas always work like a charm. They’re certainly more effective than the crusty, strict teachers, who are invariably the villains.

This list seems incomplete ;-)

Might I add ...
... seem to be staffed with teachers who only have one prep.
... have teachers who don't have a life other than school.
... don't ever get interrupted by announcements over the intercom right when the teacher is about to make a really, good point. "Pardon the interruption, the girl's soccer team will leave at 2:40 instead of 2:30."
... don't seem to have kids leave early for appointments, sports.
... never seem to have students go to the counselors office to discuss their difficulties in THAT class.
... never seem to have appointments to miss class to meet with a counselor about the proper ways to prepare for college and to pass their high school classes.
... don't seem to go on field trips in their other classes. "Please excuse..."
... don't take five days to do AYP testing ... and don't eliminate swaths of course material in order to practice test-taking skills.
... don't have a new principal every two years.
Expanding on #6
... don't ever seem to be a homogeneous class of students who are below average.
... has one kid who must really be a misunderstood genius. and he is. Instead of being a whiny, self-important little brat.
... don't seem to have the selfish, overbearing helicopter parents. They're all fighting against an oppressive school system that's just wrong about their kid.

But I am probably repeating things now.

Gee, is American Thinker Conservative?

Read this American Thinker article on paying students to work and go to school.

Here's my response, lost amoung all of the ditto-heads who are condemning these kids as shameful losers:

This sounds fishy to me. The writer can't write clean, grammatically correct sentences - this is a teacher? I'd have to see corroboration before I believe it.

It reads like he is mentioning only the extreme cases that feed his own pretentious ego. "Look at all those losers. I, the great and mighty know-it-all white boy, would never do something so stupid."

Dude. The first time ANY kid gets $600, they're going to blow it on stupid things, and any group of kids will have some with alcohol and drug problems. If the deal is made - do this and we'll pay you - then the "teacher" should get off his high moral ground and let them make mistakes and learn from them. If he can't do that, he shouldn't be in that position.

Also, they were scheduled to clean for five hours and school for three. How about we find out whether they worked well for that time and earned the right to "waste" their money? You know, by buying a computer and wasting all their time reading American Thinker and making snarky comments.

Methodology

I am a collector of methods. I like finding new ways to do the simple operations and neat new ways to look at mathematics. I do not feel these methods should be shown to students.

Teach one method. I am in favor of the algorithms that I grew up with. Old fuddy-duddy? Maybe. Tough. The old ways work. The old ways are usually simpler and easier to use.

Think subtraction. 759-384. Do it your way. Now try to follow this.

Why are we bothering to re-invent this wheel?  Isn't one way sufficient for the students?  I feel we should wait until they have completely understood one method before we confuse them with "Other" possibilities.  If a student comes up with this on his own, great. 

Sheesh.  No wonder kids get confused if this is what they're taught.
h/t to parentalcation

Musings on the Charter Conversation

In this entry, practical theory asks,

How different would the current educational conversation be if the KIPP folks said, "Yes... in some of our schools, 25-40% of the families choose to leave KIPP, but KIPP isn't for everyone, and for the students who stay, we do right by them?" What if these schools admitted that it would be much harder to have the success they have if they didn't have the traditional schools to send kids back to when it didn't work out? What if these schools admitted they didn't have all the answers, and instead had to admit that, yes, they do amazing things for many students, but they haven't figured out how to get to a significant percentage of their population, despite Herculean efforts?

Go Read.