Scores are in!!!

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season.  The time from Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve has always been my favorite time of year.  Everyone seems to have a little bit of cheer.

As many of you well know, the state released the CCRPI scores yesterday.  And I want to say to every single employee in Crawford County, “I am proud of you and the work you have done.”  Last year when the scores were released Crawford County, as a system and as individual schools, were in a bad place.  All three schools had scores in the 50s and the overall district score was below 55.  It pleases me to let everyone know that NO Crawford County Schools are in the 50s.  I have included a chart below that compare the FY15 scores to FY16:

If you will notice, CCES came up 12.1 percentage Points, CCMS came up 16.4 percentage points, and CCHS came up 5.3 percentage points.

Are we where we want to be?  

Of course not, but we are closing the gap.  And if we continue emphasizing teaching and learning, I am certain that we will be at state average in the next few years.  Just so you know how we currently look as compared to the state:

At the elementary school and the middle school we are within 5 percentage points of the state average. I am anxiously awaiting this year’s Milestone tests because with the change of culture at the high school I am expecting to see that gap narrow significantly.  

Once we get to state average our personal bar will be raised and we will shoot for the top spot in the state.

Once again, I am very very proud of the work that has been done at Crawford County! As we keep our eye on the goals and the student learning cycle: What do students need to know, understand, and be able to do? How do we teach effectively to ensure all students are learning? How do we know students are learning? What do we do when students are not learning or are reaching mastery before expectation? We will blow the top off this state and become the elite and the most Excellent School in the state.

Excellent Teachers - Excellent Leaders - Excellent Schools

Happy Thanksgiving Crawford County!!!!

Professional Learning Communities (PLC) are the new normal in education.  What is a PLC?  Well, the website, www.allthingsplc.info, defines PLCs as:

 An ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. Professional learning communities operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous job-embedded learning for educators.

I personally feel a more simple definition is:  When a group within a school meets to analyse data to create an environment of success for students.  

I saw this picture and it made me think of a school in need of a true PLC culture.  Student Success is everyone’s purpose.

Student success has got to be the reason for a school, period!  Not success in a particular class or a certain grade level, and definitely not only success at one school.  A student in Crawford County Schools has got to be able to leave Crawford County Schools with the ability to choose whatever career he or she wants.  I realize that is a pretty strong statement.  I also realize not everyone may agree with this idea, or at least they may not be able to put the time and effort into ensuring this outcome.  Being a part of one or more PLCs will help other teachers and staff members begin to look at students as a whole, not just as someone who is filling a seat in their classroom.  PLCs have to be a time where honest conversation can take place, where teachers can hold each other accountable without beating each other up.  To become a System of Excellence, we have to be able to have honest conversations and get to true root causes.  We have to stop doing things simply because that is the way things have always been done.  There has to be research to back our decisions.

The great thing that is happening in Crawford County is that the conversations are starting to happen.  I can see the change beginning and that excites me.  There is frustration across the spectrum.  Some people want the change to happen as quick as a snap, while some don’t want it at all.  The challenge now is ownership.  Ownership in the processes for the finger snappers and ownership in the outcome for the non changers.  It will come, because we have Excellent Teachers and Excellent Administrators that will ensure the student success is the target.

When I was asked a few days ago what I was thankful for, I immediately said, “for  being the Superintendent in Crawford County.”  Thank you for allowing me to work in the town, in this county, in this Excellent School.

If you have a twitter account please follow #cc1eagle to see what we have going on.

Excellent Teachers - Excellent Leaders - Excellent Schools

Student Learning Cycle

First of all let me say Happy Fall!  With the changing leaves comes a transcendental feeling that helps me understand Thoreau and Emerson.

If you are one of the few outside of the Crawford County School Staff that reads this blog I will go ahead and apologize to you up front.  This blog is geared more towards the focus of the school and school initiative, so this may not interest you as much as if you were in the trenches with us.   

Staff, if you have not already realized the focus of Crawford County Schools this year, I will state it, to make certain everyone understands.  We are focused on both Teaching and Learning.  You may be thinking to yourself, “well we are a school,” and I agree it should be understood that teaching and learning should be the focus, I do not know if we are prioritizing it to the extent we should.  There are four areas or questions that should guide us in all that we do in education and I want to take a minute to go through them with you.

1. What do students need to know, understand, and be able to do?  We must begin with the end in mind.  As we are preparing what we should teach in each unit we have to plan our expected outcome.  These outcomes must be specific, not too vague, in order to be effectively analysed.  This outcome does not have to be a unit test per say, it can be a project, an interactive presentation, an essay, anything that shows mastery of the standards that are built into unit one.  This is also known as backwards design.  Teachers design the summative assessment then work backwards.  These summative assessments should be common.  No ifs, ands, or buts about it.  If at the high school level, 2 teachers are teaching the same class (i.e. Coordinate Algebra) then the summative assessment at the end of unit one should show mastery of the same standard.  Regardless of the “level” of the student. This leads to question 2.
2. How do we teach effectively to ensure all students are learning?  This is one of the differentiated instructional pieces.  This is also about teacher delivery models.  Teachers must interact with students and know where the students truly are in the educational process.  There may be a student that is labeled gifted who is struggling with reading comprehension or a student that is labeled sped who knows all his/her times tables in second grade.  Educators must have an in depth knowledge of their students and be willing to individualize their instruction.  There is a way to gain this knowledge without waiting on the Milestone tests.
3. How do we know students are learning? The F- word, Formative Assessment! (The assessment for learning!)  There are a plethora of ways to assess students formatively and every assessment (even a summative) should be used to let teachers know what a student knows.  We should never test just to have a grade or to fill the gradebook.  Teachers will have some common formative assessments and many individualized formative assessments, but every formative assessment should let teachers know if the students are struggling with a concept or if maybe the teacher didn’t cover the concept in depth enough.  When I was in the classroom I liked using graphic organizers as formative assessments, and often times I would just allow the students to create any organizer they wished to use on a blank sheet of paper.  I did this to prevent me from guiding them too much.  I had taught the acts and events that lead to the American Revolution and I was on a roll.  To check for understanding (this was what we called our formative assessments before that was the buzzword) I put seven events and acts on the board and told my students to create a graphic organizer explaining the items on the board and their significance.  Only about 3 students out of 28 put the American Revolution on their graphic organizer.  They could describe the events, but they had no idea these events lead to American Revolution.  I had missed my mark.  I had to assess what I was doing and go back and connect some dots.  That example shows a situation where the concept was not taught, even though I was convinced I had done a great job teaching it.  There can also be a situation, and this is more often the case, where some get it sooner, some get it on time, and some need more time or different strategies to get it.
4. What do we do when students are not learning or are reaching mastery before expectation?  We enrich and remediate.  This is the second and probably the most difficult differentiated instruction piece.  Teachers must take the initiative to push the students who mastered early and assist the students who are struggling. This cannot be achieved by moving students from one classroom to another or by pulling sped students to a resource room.  The rigor nor standard mastery is there.  For many of the younger grades (K-8) there are resources available on SLDS as you get into high school the resources are limited on that platform.  

These four questions are going to be used as guiding principles as we move forward.  Strategic Goal number one is Student Achievement and these questions are a major part of that.  As our collaboration and planning moves forward this student learning cycle should guide us and every lesson should be planned by asking:

1. What do students need to know, understand, and be able to do?
2. How do we teach effectively to ensure all students are learning?
3. How do we know students are learning?
4. What do we do when students are not learning or are reaching mastery before expectation?

I appreciate the hard work that is going into these initiatives.  There is no switch that can be flipped to make these changes happen.  Collaboration and true teamwork will make Crawford County a System of Excellence.

Excellent Teachers - Excellent Leaders - Excellent Schools

As we kick-off 2016-2017 school year, I just want to say thanks to each and every employee for making the start of school extremely smooth. I am well aware I am asking not only my administrators to step out of their comfort zone, but I am putting some work on teachers that they are not accustomed to. I am proud to have a such a hard working staff work through this transition. There is good work going on all over the school system and it makes me excited for the students that are coming though our system.  

The future holds a number of new opportunities for staff members and students.  First of all, the Youth Leadership Program, a joint initiative between the Chamber of Commerce, Flint Energies, and Crawford County Schools will be selecting Juniors to participate in monthly programs to grow young leaders in our community.  The process changed slightly this year, because we asked the teachers to nominate candidates for the program. After the candidates are nominated, they will be given the opportunity to apply and be interviewed. This will give them an opportunity to hone their interview skills.  We hope to have the class in place by August 24th and the kick-off event will be on August 30th.

The Administrators will reignite the educational fire in September when the monthly A-TEAM meetings continue.  We will be moving through the school improvement process as well as analyzing the correct DATA for improvement.

There will also be a new opportunity for staff members to participate in the inaugural Empowering Eagles Leadership Institute.   The Institute will be made up of 7-10 candidates that will be selected by an interview process.  This will be a two year training with 5 scheduled meetings throughout each year.  There will be two book studies and a number of special guests to assist the candidates in Data Analyzation, Strategic Planning, Leadership Roles, and other topics of the day.  The classes will meet during the school day and a substitute will be provided.  More to come on this later this month.

I will not use this blog to promote any political agenda; however, I think it is imperative that you familiarize yourself with Senate Resolution 287 (SR 287) and the implementing legislation (SR 133).  This is more commonly known as the opportunity school district amendment and the ballot language is as follows:

Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow the state to intervene in chronically failing public schools in order to improve student performance? ( ) YES ( ) NO

Make sure you have read as much about this as possible and can talk educationally about the amendment when people out and about ask you about it.  There is a lot of information on the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders (GAEL) website, the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) website, the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE) website, The Georgia School Superintendents Association (GSSA) website, or you can google, “opportunity school district.”

Staff, as you begin to form your rituals and routines for this school year, please remember the difference between you and the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream company.  You cannot throw out the raw products just because  they are not perfect.  It is up to you to take that product and grow and mold it into something EXCELLENT.

Excellent Teachers - Excellent Leaders - Excellent Schools

What a great day to be in Crawford County!

It was very exciting to see the new teachers this morning at the New Teacher Orientation.  I feel like we have a great staff and we are building an EXCELLENT team.  Special thanks goes out to Denise Lucas for orchestrating the event.

All staff members will return next Monday on August 1st and we will have a fun-filled week of collaborative planning, unit building, and assessment coordination.  The teachers in Crawford County are, and will continually be, working diligently to provide the children of Crawford County an EXCELLENT educational opportunity.  We will truly look at every student as an individual and try our best to provide a tailored education to everyone who walks in our doors.

Open house will be Tuesday, August 9th from 3:00 -7:00.  The faculty and staff of every campus look forward to meeting and forming an EXCELLENT relationship with their students and parents.  This gives you, as students and parents, the opportunity to meet your teachers; as well as, take advantage of volunteer opportunities.  Each school is forming a School Council and we would appreciate your willingness to serve.

I appreciate the opportunity to be your Superintendent and I look forward to making your school EXCELLENT.

Excellent Teachers - Excellent Leaders - Excellent Schools

What a great week for Educators!!!

On Monday, Governor Deal signed the FY 17 Budget which  "includes an additional $300 million for K-12 education that local school districts can use to enhance teacher’s salaries while also working to keep students and teachers in the classroom for full calendar years."  He saw that many districts still had furlough days and he listened to educators concerning the need to reduce or completely get rid of those.

On Tuesday, Gov. Deal showed his appreciation for the work of educators by listening to their concerns about the evaluation system and assessments and signed SB 364.  As we continue to try to find ways to improve the educational system, it is imperative that we revisit policy decisions from time to time to see if we need to make improvements, and this bill does that.  Thanks to the Governor for listening to the concerns raised as well as all those who got it to his desk.

There were also some very interesting vetoes but the one at the forefront would have to be  SB 355, this is the opt-out bill.  Governor Deal stated, "local school systems have the flexibility to determine opt-out procedures for its students who cannot take the assessments in addition to those who choose not to take such assessments.  As there is no need for state-level intervention in addition to the regulations already set in place on a local level, I veto SB 355."

The last bit of information from the Capitol comes straight from Georgia School Boards Association, GSBA:  Beware the Ballot Question

If you vote in the Republican primary May 24th or before, you will find a non-binding question on vouchers although it doesn't use the word:  "Should Georgia empower parents with the right to use the tax dollars allocated for the education of their children, allowing them the freedom to choose among public, private, virtual, and home school?" The question describes the education savings account type voucher.

If you want to find your sample ballot, click here. (You do have to set up a login)

If you thought I meant that other ballot question, the one coming up in November, the Governor's office released the updated list of schools eligible to be taken over based on the 2015 CCRPI scores. There are a bunch of changes from last year's list as expected.  Odd to go from "failing" to oh-never-mind, but there we are.  Some will say the improvements are a result of being pressured by the proposed takeover, but some people will also try to sell you a bridge to nowhere.  The 2015 scores are from 2014-15 and reflect work already taking place.

Now on to CCRPI

Our scores were made public yesterday and frankly they were not very good; however, after getting our milestone data last Fall we were not expecting great things from CCRPI.  The good thing is:  WE HAVE A PLAN!

Our plan going forward is to use our Strategic Waiver and our calendar to build strong units with standard based assessments at all levels, to create a professional learning community that looks at vertical planning and team planning, and to create data teams to determine root causes.   In addition, the Administrators will continue the monthly A-Team meetings to grow and be able to assist in the process.  We have many opportunities and we are putting together the team to conquer these opportunities.

Teachers and Staff, I appreciate all that you do and I know you put a lot of time and energy into your profession.  Not everyone can do what you do.

Thanks.

Good Monday!

I realize there has been a delay in my Blog and I will offer an apology without an excuse.  

There has been a lot going on in Crawford County.  All schools have been working diligently to get a solid draft of their Vision, Mission and Belief.  The BOE is also working on a district level VMB.  These will be the driving force behind all we do over the next few years and the process, although slow, has been very productive.

There is big piece of legislation that is making its way through legislation.  Senate Bill 364.  You have heard me talk about it in previous Blogs, but it will change a lot of the requirements for evaluations and testing.  I was part of a Race to the Top District and a complaint that was voiced from the inception was the amount of testing (SLOs) and the required 6 observations for every teacher.  This Bill addresses these concerns and seems to be a step in the right direction.  I have included the Georgia School Boards Association’s synopsis of the Bill that passed the House:

Provisions – annual performance evaluations for teachers of record, principals, and assistant principals: An evaluation system adopted by the State Board of Education for education personnel shall use multiple measures and shall not include the the test scores of students who have not been in attendance for a specific course for at least 90% of the instructional days for the course. Teachers of record, assistant principals, and principals shall be evaluated using multiple, rigorous, and transparent measures. Teachers of record, assistant principals, and principals shall be given written notice in advance of the school year of the evaluation measures and any specific indicators that will be used to evaluate them. Systems may implement a tiered evaluation system, including reduced observations for certain teachers of record with proficient or exemplary ratings allowing time for coaching and mentoring new teachers and teachers with needs development or ineffective ratings. Such evaluations shall consist of no less than two classroom observations and one summative evaluation annually. Beginning with the 2016-17 school year, evaluation measures will include the following elements: For teachers of record who teach courses subject to annual state assessments aligned with state standards: Growth in student achievement on the annual state assessment shall count for 30% Professional growth shall count for 20%. Professional growth shall be measured by progress toward or attainment of professional growth goals. Teacher evaluations and observations shall count 50% (including multiple observations conducted annually by appropriately trained and credentialed evaluators, using clear consistent observation rubrics and supplemented by other measures aligned with student achievement and professional growth) For teachers who do not teach courses subject to the annual state assessments; Growth in student achievement shall count for 30% of the evaluation. Student growth measures shall utilize at least one growth measure. Professional growth shall count for 20%. Professional growth shall be measured by progress toward or attainment of professional growth goals. Teacher evaluations and observations shall count 50% (including multiple observations conducted annually by appropriately trained and credentialed evaluators, using clear consistent observation rubrics and supplemented by other measures aligned with student achievement and professional growth For principals and assistant principals: Growth in student achievement based on the school score on annual state assessments shall count for at least 40% of the evaluation. School climate shall count for 10%. 20% shall be based on achievement gap closure, Beat the Odds or CCRPI data as determined by the flexibility contract. 30% shall be based on leader evaluations, observations, and standards of practice. Teachers of record, principals, and assistant principals shall be evaluated on personal merits without imposition of any quota system or predetermined distributions of ratings. Provisions – student assessment: The student assessment program shall include a comprehensive summative assessment program for grades 3-12: Each local system shall administer, with state funding, a research based formative assessment with a summative component tied to performance indicators in English and language arts/reading in grades one and two, subject to available appropriations The State Board shall adopt a school readiness assessment for students entering first grade. Local systems are strongly encouraged to develop and implement multiple formative assessments in reading and mathematics for grades K-5, including mastery in reading by the end of third grade and mastery in the basic mathematics skills by the end of fifth grade. End of grade assessments in English, language arts/reading and mathematics shall be annually administered in grades 3-8. End of grade assessments in science and social studies shall be annually administered in grades 5 and 8. If the flexibility contract calls for multiple formative assessments during the year that result in a single summative score, such assessments may take the place of end of grade assessments. State Board shall periodically review, revise, and upgrade content standards. State Board adopted end of course assessments shall be administered in grades 9-12 for all core subjects. State Board required writing assessments may be embedded within the other required summative assessments. Alternate assessments for specified students shall be aligned with alternate academic achievement standards. State Board shall ensure that alternate assessments are in compliance with applicable federal law but do not impose additional requirements that unduly burdens a local school system or does not benefit students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. If allowed by federal law, the Department of Education may establish a pilot program utilizing an existing program of multiple formative assessments resulting in a single summative assessment that is valid and reliable in measuring individual student achievement or growth and student academic needs.  Such assessments may be utilized in place of end of course and end of grade assessments if provided for in the school system flexibility contract. The State Board  shall adopt policies  that will move the end of grade and end of course assessment windows as close to the end of the school year or semester as possible. Local systems are strongly encouraged to administer such tests with the last week of the mid-year semester or within the last two weeks of the school year depending upon the length of the course. EFFECTIVE DATE:  Upon approval by the General Assembly and Governor.

Due to the length of the synopsis I will conclude my BLOG for today.

First of all, I would like to congratulate the Crawford County Eagles boys’ basketball team for both their Region Championship and their big win over Seminole County on Wednesday, February 17th.  

In Wrestling action, Mathew Barajas placed 6th at the State Competition.

I also want to congratulate Laura Meldrum on receiving the IMPACT Award in Special Education recently at a GLRS luncheon in Macon.  

 

THE A-TEAM

 

A- Administrators

T- Teaching

E-Empowering

A-Assisting

M-Modeling/Monitoring

 

The A-Team met on February 9th to start deciding on true Vision, Mission, and Beliefs.  They also spent most of the afternoon refreshing their knowledge of unpacking the Georgia Standards of Excellence (ELA and Math) and the GPS “for now” (Science and Social Studies). The next meeting with the A-Team will be on March 21^st, and we will continue our training.  I am sure the A-Team members from your school have scheduled, or will schedule, a meeting for each school to work on school level V,M, & B.  Please take pride in this process. These three things should guide your school and this system in all that we do.  It should not be something we just put on the website to be checked off for AdvancED.  The BOE has a work session on March 1st where I will be guiding them through the same process.  I am excited to have everyone in the boat hopefully rowing in the same direction, because according to a Swahili proverb, “A boat doesn’t go forward if each one is rowing their own way”.

 

Now on to some fun items, legislation!!!!!

 

SB 364 made it to the Senate Education and Youth Committee on Wednesday, but no vote was taken.  This bill, as it is presented, will:

 

1. Reduce state tests from 32 to 24.
2. Allow fewer observations for veteran, high-performing teachers.
3. Requires an annual summative assessment for grades 3-12 to be used for student placement, not teacher evaluation.
4. Requires GADOE to produce a readiness assessment for first grade.
5. Requires that standardized tests comprise 30% of a teacher's evaluation; up to 10% of the 30% may be from multiple measures.
6. For teachers of record that do not have a state assessment, growth in student achievement shall comprise 30% based on local formulation.
7. School leaders shall have 40% of their evaluation based on student achievement with a minimum of 30% from state tests.
8. Students must attend 80% of the classes for a course to be counted in the evaluation process.
9. Strongly urges moving first semester tests to the last week of the semester and end of year tests to the last two weeks of the school year.
10. Compels the GADOE to insure that alternative assessments for students with disabilities comply with Federal law without imposing undue burdens on the local school system.

 

These are steps in the right direction, but who knows how they are going to pick this apart.  I still do not like SLOs being used as they are currently.  I think learning targets and 8-10 formative assessments would do a better job of insuring growth (i.e. standard mastery), but I have been voicing that opinion since Race To The Top began.  I do feel like the reduction of observations for veteran teachers is a win.

 

HB 865, the BEST Act, would establish a second income tax exemption program for students leaving public school to attend a private school.  In other words, a parent or a grandparent can donate to this “scholarship” and they will receive an income tax credit.  The BEST act is better than the GOAL scholarship; however, if the legislators will allow for a tax credit for donation to a private school scholarship, they should allow for a tax credit for a donation to public schools.  I’m just saying.

 

HR 1344 is a proposed Constitutional amendment that would allow a school district to call for a second ESPLOST if a county/city discontinued its LOST.  Proceeds of the second ESPLOST, if passed, must be used to lower the millage rate limit.  This amendment goes with HB 1005, relating to that discontinuance.  According to HB 1005, if the LOST or HOST was discontinued due to a failure to file a new or revised distribution certificate with the state revenue commissioner, the question cannot be taken to the voters for five years, and all revenue from the LOST that the state holds remains with the state instead of being distributed to the county and qualified cities.  In the meantime, this Constitutional amendment would allow local boards to ask voters for that 1%. Sounds like a set up for a local fight and an injustice to the cities and counties with the state retaining local funds.  "You snooze, you lose" is probably not the best basis for tax policy. I think the additional 1% is a great idea for relieving some of the burden on the property taxes, but pitting the local agencies against one another is a terrible idea.

 

Once again, there is a more complete list of current bills on the GAEL website.  The link to these Bills is right in the center of the page below the legal issues ad.