The Leadership and Learning Blog

Focusing on Specific Instructional Strategies
Douglas B. Reeves, Ph.D.
08/09/2010

Question:  Greetings, Dr. Reeves.  I really enjoyed your webinar this morning on data analysis.  When a superintendent talks with a principal about state test results and compares one school to another, should the principal focus the conversation on the specific results at her school, rather than engage in a conversation about why other schools are outperforming hers?

Dr. Reeves’ Response:  Thanks very much for your question.  I don’t think you can compare the performance of one school to another unless you also look at the specific teaching and leadership practices that are associated with student results.  Saying a school “should work harder to get the results that Jefferson School achieved” is not very helpful to your school unless the similarities and differences between your school and Jefferson school can be identified at the classroom level. It’s somewhat like admonishing the Red Sox to “Be the Yankees” without talking about hitting, pitching, and defense.

That said, I know that school districts will compare schools, just as I check the league standings every day.  But so far, my daily habit has not helped the Sox to prosper.  A more constructive approach for those wishing to compare schools would be focus on the data I addressed today – student by student, classroom by classroom, teacher by teacher.  Districts should focus on specific...

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Standards 4.0: The Next Generation
Douglas B. Reeves, Ph.D.
07/19/2010

Star Trek had a good run, helping a generation of kids, and perhaps a few adults, make the transition from a “duck and cover” mentality to a “live long and prosper” mentality, bridging the 1960’s with the 2160’s.  The standards movement must cross similarly difficult terrain.  Without skillful leadership and planning, standards will meet the fate of Star Trek characters – desperate pleas for attention (Kirk), burned to a cinder in outer space (Spock), or forgotten and irrelevant (McCoy).  I fear that the standards movement is now sustained only by the fleeting promise of federal funds and that the future remains in grave danger unless educators and policymakers make some fundamentally different decisions.  First, let’s consider the history that brought us from Standards 1.0 to the current state of affairs, and then identify the essential decisions that must be made to sustain the effort.

Standards 1.0 to 2.0

Standards 1.0, the first emerging consensus of what students should know and be able to do, were represented by McGuffey’s Readers, originally published in 1836, and ultimately influenced the education of more than 100 million students.  McGuffey, without a single federal or state mandate, set a standard for literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving that continues to endure as a model of high expectations for schools around the world. ...

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Six Tips for Facilitating an Effective Book Study
Katie Schellhorn
05/27/2010

Effective professional development comes in many forms, one of which is a book study.  In order to ensure productivity and value, here are some tips for you to implement your next book study with success:

  1. Own the content!  The book study should support initiatives or struggles happening in your school; therefore, participants can easily relate to the content.  Allow participants to be involved in the book-selection process.
  2. Find a purpose. Set goals based on what outcomes you want to achieve through the study and make sure you monitor your progress. If the study does not go as well as you are hoping, and you are not meeting your goals, abandon the book.
  3. Honor the meeting time. Do not let the book-study time become less important than any other professional development time you would have had. Set meeting protocols and guidelines and adhere to these throughout the study.
  4. Motivate participants by involving everyone in the planning and the discussion. Jigsaw chapters, have participants bring related articles or books, create engaging activities, and develop questions to garner discussion.
  5. Have fun! Reading interesting content and partaking in exciting discussions should be fun. Be creative by bringing food, developing contests, picking an off-site location, or designing a virtual book-study group.
  6. Follow through! The learning should not stop with...
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How Will Next Year Be Different?
Douglas B. Reeves, Ph.D.
05/25/2010

Even before the final grades are in for the spring of 2010, many student schedules for the year are already set in stone.  That’s too bad.  If we expect the 2010-2011 academic year to be one of improved student performance, we must first ask, “How will next year be different?”  If we have the same schedule and use the same interventions, same assessment practices, same teaching strategies, and same leadership decisions, why should we expect student results to be different?  Here are seven decisions you can make now to improve student success for next semester:

  1. Change the schedule to allocate more time to literacy.  Just today I learned of yet another high school that was bemoaning the poor literacy skills of its students, despite its claim to be implementing a reading intervention program.  Some of this school’s 9th and 10th grade students are reading on a 5th grade level, are facing multiple failures, and will likely drop out of school.  What was the school’s “reading intervention” commitment?  Forty-five minutes a day – the same amount of time spent in every other class to make one year of gains for students who are already reading on grade level.  Despite the overwhelming evidence from turnaround schools that time – two or three hours a day – and focus on literacy...
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Drowning in Data; Thirsty for Information
Douglas B. Reeves, Ph.D.
05/19/2010

A group of teachers are in the middle of the desert, dying of thirst.  What they need more than anything else is a drink of water.  It’s a simple request – just a drink of water.  On the horizon, they see three large caravans, each containing large numbers of people and animals, a certain sign that help is on the way.  Surely at least one of the people in one of the caravans can offer them a drink.

The first caravan looks odd – people in suits and wire-rimmed glasses riding on camels, bulging briefcases labeled “water” at their side.  As they pass by, they empty the contents of their suitcases – pages and pages of spreadsheets and PowerPoint diagrams about water.

The second caravan appears to be from the circus, with lions, elephants, and clowns.  At last the ringmaster appears, delivering an inspirational speech and heart-rending anecdotes about the value of water.

Finally, the third caravan arrives – surely this one must include a life-saving drink.– But hope is quickly displaced by despair as the dour-looking crew announces in stentorian tones new regulations about the professional responsibility of teachers to use water more wisely, and threatening them with consequences should they fail to comply with these regulations that the crew is setting forth.

I don’t know how this story ends, but based on what I’ve been hearing from schools around the...

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