One Year Turnaround, Part Six

The series may seem long with one post per chapter (review of the book The One-Year School Turnaround, by James Young), but it's important to understand how Mr. Young thinks and works because we are trusting him in Duval County, Florida, to rescue targeted schools from the sanctions of HB 7069, the legislative bill signed by Governor Scott that shortened the time schools not making the grade (literally, not earning a C by Florida's school grade formula) have to improve or be shut down.

Throughout this section of the book, Young complains that principals are often unaware of their school's data. I can only hope this is a reflection upon work throughout many school districts because I don't know of a single Duval County principal who is not keenly aware of their school's data, who is not maintaining notebooks and analyses, and who is not using the data to support their decisions.

You'd have to be so clueless as not to get the gig at all since principals twice a year must appear before the superintendent and high district muckety-mucks, known as the cabinet, in our weird version of the British Parliament's Prime Minister Questions sessions. They could be asked anything and they had better have data to back up their answers.

Young recommends a principal having an effective data management system, which means people to crunch the numbers for them, and then lots of data chats. Lots and lots of data chats: teacher-student, admin-teacher, coach-teacher, admin-coach, teacher-parent, school-community ...

He says that he did not send report cards home but required parents to come and pick them up. This took place after school and on Saturdays. Parents met with teachers for an explanation of the grades.

I'm all in for parental communication and meeting with parents, but I sense a huge contract issue in his writing. Did he require that teachers work lots of uncompensated hours? If they refused, did he punish them on their evaluations with 'needs improvement' ratings in areas like parent communication, professionalism, and willingness to help the school?

#teribrady&dtu