"Determine the Problem"
Young states the obvious before he issues this blistering criticism: 'Before determining the root causes of failure, school leaders, district and state staff, and consultants try to fix the problem by changing leadership, removing teachers, bringing in a new curriculum, hiring consultants, or implementing new programs. Millions of dollars are spent unnecessarily while schools continue to fail."
Does he put his contract into that category? Sorry, had to get the snark out of the way.
Districts should not use the same plan for every school. He is correct about that. Different schools have different challenges. Often the one plan for all approach simply reveals that district leadership is deficient in understanding its schools. The 'I know best' attitude of the district has been destructive to the goal of helping schools.
"The best time to evaluate schools is in the spring, before school lets out." I've said this for years. School Improvement Plans make no sense to me and when I talked about the process to business people, inevitably I would be met with laughter. No one other than schools opens their door to their clientele and only then begin to make a plan, a yearlong plan that will have only five months before it is evaluated. Young calls this insanity and I agree.
Young expands his critique to how schools are evaluated in that only test data is used. "Test data do not indicate the causes of school failure; test data just indicate the school is failing." The point is well made, but I would argue that test scores from reading and math are not sufficient to conclude that a school is failing. More measures are needed before making that determination.
Young calls for a multi-pronged approach to identifying the causes of a school's problems: individual interviews with students, parents, teachers, staff, and community members; focus groups; surveys; observations.
He makes the important point that if people give their ideas, advice, and feedback, that input should result in visible action. Ignoring the input of stakeholders only causes them to check out of the process. "Even if I was not in favor of some of their suggestions, I made it my business to change, implement, alter, or modify something they requested. It was their school also, so their input mattered."
YES! If only district people would have this attitude!
(I came to this same conclusion decades earlier in business. Sometimes a staff member wanted to do something I was sure wouldn't work. I approved it anyway. First, I could be wrong (DCPS, are you listening?), second, the staff member would be invested in their idea and that might provide the edge to make it work, third, they needed to know their ideas were valued and there is no way to value an idea like allowing the person to do it. If the idea didn't work, I didn't have to kill it; the staff member would do it--no one wants to be a loser. Encouraging a climate of innovation and accepting failure as a part of the growth/learning process ... isn't that what education should be?)
As for observation, years ago it was called Management by Walking Around. Go see what's really taking place rather than sitting in a closed office studying numbers on paper.
Finally, Young calls for research: "lesson planning, the master schedule, extended learning opportunities, and classroom management ..." He admits this takes time, but avers that it is necessary. Only then can a systematic plan be developed.
Mr. Young, you are on point, but the time ... you don't have it for the three schools on the chopping block. I can only assume you are positioning yourself to be the outside management company that must be hired come the end of June.
(The book is 'The One-Year School Turnaround,' by James Young, available on Amazon. I am reading and sharing my review because Mr. Young has been given a $500,000 consultant contract to work with eight schools in my city that are in danger of being closed or charterized under the Florida law known as HB 7069. Young is a former principal in the city.)
Does he put his contract into that category? Sorry, had to get the snark out of the way.
Districts should not use the same plan for every school. He is correct about that. Different schools have different challenges. Often the one plan for all approach simply reveals that district leadership is deficient in understanding its schools. The 'I know best' attitude of the district has been destructive to the goal of helping schools.
"The best time to evaluate schools is in the spring, before school lets out." I've said this for years. School Improvement Plans make no sense to me and when I talked about the process to business people, inevitably I would be met with laughter. No one other than schools opens their door to their clientele and only then begin to make a plan, a yearlong plan that will have only five months before it is evaluated. Young calls this insanity and I agree.
Young expands his critique to how schools are evaluated in that only test data is used. "Test data do not indicate the causes of school failure; test data just indicate the school is failing." The point is well made, but I would argue that test scores from reading and math are not sufficient to conclude that a school is failing. More measures are needed before making that determination.
Young calls for a multi-pronged approach to identifying the causes of a school's problems: individual interviews with students, parents, teachers, staff, and community members; focus groups; surveys; observations.
He makes the important point that if people give their ideas, advice, and feedback, that input should result in visible action. Ignoring the input of stakeholders only causes them to check out of the process. "Even if I was not in favor of some of their suggestions, I made it my business to change, implement, alter, or modify something they requested. It was their school also, so their input mattered."
YES! If only district people would have this attitude!
(I came to this same conclusion decades earlier in business. Sometimes a staff member wanted to do something I was sure wouldn't work. I approved it anyway. First, I could be wrong (DCPS, are you listening?), second, the staff member would be invested in their idea and that might provide the edge to make it work, third, they needed to know their ideas were valued and there is no way to value an idea like allowing the person to do it. If the idea didn't work, I didn't have to kill it; the staff member would do it--no one wants to be a loser. Encouraging a climate of innovation and accepting failure as a part of the growth/learning process ... isn't that what education should be?)
As for observation, years ago it was called Management by Walking Around. Go see what's really taking place rather than sitting in a closed office studying numbers on paper.
Finally, Young calls for research: "lesson planning, the master schedule, extended learning opportunities, and classroom management ..." He admits this takes time, but avers that it is necessary. Only then can a systematic plan be developed.
Mr. Young, you are on point, but the time ... you don't have it for the three schools on the chopping block. I can only assume you are positioning yourself to be the outside management company that must be hired come the end of June.
(The book is 'The One-Year School Turnaround,' by James Young, available on Amazon. I am reading and sharing my review because Mr. Young has been given a $500,000 consultant contract to work with eight schools in my city that are in danger of being closed or charterized under the Florida law known as HB 7069. Young is a former principal in the city.)
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